


Disappearing Act

by alwayslouxo



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Captive, Cold, Contracts, Dark, Deals, Drug Withdrawal, Drugs, F/M, Gen, Guns, Hallucinations, Hurt Louis, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Kidnapped, Kidnapped Louis, Kidnapping, Labels, Modest, One direction AU, Original Character(s), Paranoia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Ransom, Recovery, Revenge, Rivalry, Secrets, Torture, Tortured Louis, Violence, forced drug abuse, hostage, kidnap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-06-06 03:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 56,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwayslouxo/pseuds/alwayslouxo
Summary: Louis Tomlinson gets kidnapped by a bunch of men he had never seen for a reason that was much darker than anyone had expected.





	1. PROLOGUE

The small door at the end of the warehouse started to creak open and Louis was pulled out of his forced slumber once again. He groaned, opening his eyes but closed them just as soon at the blinding light. He didn’t attempt to move his pain-ridden body even as he heard heavy footsteps approach his bound and lifeless form in the dark corner.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.” He heard one of them say. _Tyler. It was Tyler._ He whimpered, weakly, as a booted foot nudged his side.

He finally managed to open his eyes, squinting them to allow as little light as possible. And, that’s when he saw four men standing above him, surrounding him like vultures. The four men who had been holding him in this damned place for a long time. He didn’t know how long, he lost count after four days. But he knew it was long, for sure.

One of them, Brad, crouched down and ruffled his hair, making him flinch slightly.

“Wake up, buddy.” Brad quipped, sarcastically. “You’re going to be free from today.” He said and Louis couldn’t help but look up at him with hope in his eyes.

Were they going to let him go?

He opened his mouth to ask but choked, gagging on the cloth that he had forgotten was forced between his teeth earlier and ended up coughing into it. His throat felt dry, almost like sandpaper and the cloth kept itching the back of it, adding to his discomfort.

Brad grabbed his arm and pulled him into a sitting position, to which he complied easily because he was too weak to even sit up straight. He dragged him closer to the wall before letting him lean against it. Louis closed his eyes, breathing in the stale air and trying to calm his rigid breathing so he could, at least, relish the fact that he was going to go home.

The cloth forced into his mouth was yanked out, suddenly, making him cough from being gagged for long hours. Before he could even collect his senses, he felt a bottle pressed to his lips while a hand grabbed his jaw in place. He, greedily, took in sips of water he had been craving for since long. But his empty stomach couldn’t take so much and he choked on the clear liquid, jerking his head back while gasping as the cool water splashed onto his shirt. However, he did savour the feeling of the water against the rough and dry insides of his throat.

“See? Greed always kills.” Gerrard, the third guy said, capping the water bottle when Louis struggled to breathe again.

Louis couldn’t believe he’d say that. After all, they were the ones who were greedy enough to hold him hostage for this long so they could get whatever they demanded from the management for his release. But he didn’t open his mouth. He just remained silent, still trying to control his breath as he saw Carter, the leader of the other three, crouch down on his heels in front of him.

He looked at Louis’ face, calculatingly, as if trying to read his mind. For seconds, he eyed the blue eyed boy with a smug smile that was always present on his sinister face. Louis flinched, backing more into the wall behind him when Carter raised his hand to his split lip, making Louis wince at the sting. Carter chuckled and retrieved his hand, standing back up before looking at the other three men.

“Bring him out.” He ordered, heading for the door along with Gerrard and Louis couldn’t help but notice Carter’s hand going to the gun tucked in his belt.

What is going on? They are letting him go. Right? The management agreed to their demand. Right? Louis didn’t understand what was going on as he watched Carter exit the place, closing the door behind him with a slam.

Brad yanked him up to his feet and grabbed his arm while Tyler took the other and they started dragging him along as they walked towards the door. Louis couldn’t help but let them carry him, his bound ankles uselessly trailing along the dusty floor while he didn’t try to move his stiffened hands because the rope holding them behind his back burned his skin like hell.

He hissed, squeezing his eyes shut at the outside light that stung his eyes when they got out of the warehouse. A couple of seconds later, having regained his vision, he looked around and frowned at the sight. There was no car. No one from the management waiting with the money for exchange. But he only saw Carter standing beside Gerrard, who had positioned himself behind a camera. And Louis’ heart sank, finally understanding what they meant by him being _free from today_. Panic rushed inside Louis as he shifted his eyes to Carter’s which held no emotion, not even the smugness they always did.

“No.” He whispered, brokenly, in a hoarse voice as he tried to free himself from the two men holding him but he stood no chance against them. “No.” He protested, louder this time but none of them seemed fazed at all.

“Is the tape ready to record?” Carter asked, eyes unmoving from a weakly struggling Louis.

Gerrard gave him a stiff nod and Louis knew he was helpless. There was no one, nothing to stop these four men from writing his fate. But he knew he had the chance to speak. In the time he had been here, there were rare moments when he’d be left ungagged and able to speak. So, he did. He spoke without thinking as the two men forced him towards the other two standing a few meters away from the warehouse.

“Don’t do this, please. I can get you the money. I can get you the money you want!” He said, his voice coming out much weaker than he had expected.

But, unfortunately, for him, nobody was in the mood to listen. He kept protesting until he was finally forced to his knees a few steps away from the camera, facing it. Whimpering as Tyler placed his foot on Louis’ bound ones to keep him place while holding his shoulders in an iron grip. He knew he had no choice apart from pleading. He knew that was the only thing he could do to get himself out of this. But seeing these people’s stone faces, he also knew that convincing would probably not work with these monsters.

“Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this!” Louis begged again with teary eyes. “I’ll do anything you want! You can take all my mo—“

“Brad?” Carter said, giving the beefy man behind Louis a nod.

Louis saw Brad lean down with a stoic face, reaching for the cloth hanging from his neck but Louis jerked his face away the best he could.

“It won’t hurt, Louis. I’ll make it as soon as possible.” Carter said, loading his gun with bullets while a small, red light flickered on the camera, implying it had started recording.   

“No, Carter, no! Please, don’t do this! I will get you the money, I promise! I don’t want to die.” Louis cried, panicking more when Tyler held him in a headlock and Brad forced the cloth back into his mouth before pulling the ends tight so it wouldn’t slip off.

Now having no other choice, Louis only looked at Carter with his fear-filled, wide eyes begging him to have the least bit of mercy to not snatch his life away from him.

“No hard feelings, Tomlinson. But your stupid management did not get us what we wanted even though we had given them enough time already. Maybe, they don’t think you are worth saving so why don’t we just finish it, yeah?” Carter said, raising his gun and aiming it at Louis, who shook his head, mumbling unintelligible words into the cloth.

Louis squeezed his eyes shut, letting the tears slip from his eyes. He never thought it would all come down to this. Did he really suffer this much to just be killed at the end? He would have given up much before if he knew this would happen. He wouldn’t even have stepped out of that club that day if he knew he was going to be kidnapped. But, now, he couldn’t do anything as he convinced his mind to take the bullet.

And, soon, he would be no more. No more singing. No more tours. No more recording sessions. No more interviews. No more photoshoots. Nothing. He couldn’t even remember the last time he spoke to his mum and sisters. Or the boys. But he only imagined their faces before hanging his head low in defeat, giving his captors full control over him as he heard the gun’s safety being taken off.

This was it, he knew.


	2. ONE

Louis wanted to just get out of the loud and crowded club. Normally, he would have enjoyed this but today he just wasn’t in the mood. He wouldn’t even have come here if Niall hadn’t called him almost a hundred times asking him to join him. Now, he was sitting on a bar stool by the counter, sipping his bottle of beer while he could see Niall dancing along with a few other friends to the loud music. Niall was hammered, Louis knew it.

Louis, however, felt exhausted even though he had only had a couple of drinks. But they sure seemed to take their toll on him because he felt slightly light-headed. He wanted some fresh air. He wanted to go out. Looking around, he tried to search for Paul but couldn’t see him anywhere. Maybe, he was outside. He searched for his phone in his pocket but noticed that the battery was almost close to zero.

Sighing, Louis stood up once finished with his beer and decided to head out and talk to Paul about going back home and dropping Niall back at his place before he gets too drunk. Not that he already wasn’t. But he knew Niall could go far worse than this. He pushed his way past the people, trying to get to the exit of the place.

Soon enough, he was out of the dancing crowd and made his way through the dimly-lit corridors which was barely filled with people. There weren’t many people apart from very few couples who were making out in the corners. Louis didn’t pay any attention to the people around as his only motive was to look for Paul. However, he did hear a set of footsteps behind him. Louis looked to his right, actually intending to confirm it through the corner of his eye. And fear struck him as soon as he did. There was someone following him and he wished it was just Niall or Paul. But he knew it wasn’t. And that made his fear increase.

Louis froze in his tracks when he saw another man approach him from ahead and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t really have a choice, though. Unless he could magically teleport through the walls on either sides. Maybe, he isn’t supposed to be scared. Maybe, they were just walking around like him. But his thought vanished when a pair of hands grabbed him from behind and he saw the man walk over with something in his hands. Louis thrashed against the strong grip but the man’s grip was strong and crushing, almost suffocating by the way his back was pinned to the man’s chest.

“No! Let me go!” Louis yelled, struggling more under the grip. “Help! Someone help me, I’m bei—“

“Oh, shut up!” The man holding him growled as Louis felt a cloth being shoved into his mouth before the man clamped his hand over it, preventing him from spitting it out.

Louis’ mind kept telling him to panic but he knew he was supposed to fight. He knew what happened to people who get kidnapped in clubs or from the streets. He had read articles and heard stories before. And he didn’t want all that to happen to him. He didn’t even know who these people were. They could be traffickers or from one of those gangs he had only heard about. Instinctively, Louis lifted his leg and kicked the man who was approaching him. Letting out an angry grunt, the man holding him pushed him against the wall, hard enough to block his fighting senses for a second. And before he could recover, he felt a sharp sting in his neck, letting out a muffled scream into the hand.

“It’s clear.” He heard the other guy say before he felt another pair of hands grab his legs and he was being carried somewhere. The cold air stung Louis’ sweaty skin and he realized they had taken him out of the club.

Louis wanted to fight or at least try to put up one but his body wasn’t volunteering. He couldn’t even feel his movements and had no control over them. His mind went foggy, blocking out any kind of voices while tears blurred his vision. He wanted to scream but couldn’t find his voice, or maybe he did scream but his foggy mind couldn’t make out his muffled cry. He didn’t know what was happening to him. And that fact scared him more than he already was. The last thing he remembered was being pushed into something really small and stuffy before he slipped into unconsciousness.

 

 

 

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Stressed out of his head, Paul walked out after the meeting with the people from the management and glanced at his watch to notice the time was almost seven in the morning. Almost nine hours since Louis Tomlinson had been missing. An unnerving fear was striking the back of his mind as to where Louis could have gone. Last night was all like a haze to him. He remembered leaving Louis and Niall in the club and telling them he’d be around, asking them to ring him if they need anything. And after a few hours when he went back in, he found Niall in an all-time high state while Louis was nowhere to be found.

Paul had searched for Louis everywhere in the club once having sent Niall back home with Trevor. He had checked for a second time after the club had closed down in the morning but there was still no sign of Louis. He wasn’t even there at his home, neither was he answering his phone which seemed to be switched off. And Louis’ disappearance had become his major concern by the time five hours had gone. And now, the security team was busy looking for him anywhere they knew he’d be.

What worried Paul more was the fact that the management did seem extremely worried even though they tried to hide it. Which was unusual for them. He had known Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee for over three years but never had he seen them so much worried about something like this. They were always calm and composed at handling things. But the way Paul saw their expressions freeze when he told them Louis has been missing, increased his worry. How was he going to explain Louis’ disappearance to his family? To the boys? For now, he seemed to have no answers in his mind. Moreover, he was concerned for the boy more than anything. Where was he? Was he even alright? _No, he is! He is alright!_ He tried to convince himself. And even now he just wished it was just some other prank Louis was playing. But something told him it wasn’t. Something might have happened last night. Something he didn’t know.

He got out of the Modest office and went to the studio just to see if Louis might have shown up. And he could give anything to know if Louis was alright. He had told Stacy about the situation and she had already called the other boys, telling them the recording session for today was cancelled. He held his phone in his hand, still hoping Louis would call to say he was drunk and lost and ask him to come and pick him up. But even he wasn’t sure if he was actually expecting a call on it. He had sent a few of the members from the security to investigate the club or anywhere close to the area, to search for someone, anyone with feathery, brown hair and blue eyes.

Entering the studio, he found Zayn, Liam and Harry waiting in there for their recordings and Paul internally frowned at the sight because he knew he couldn’t face them. Not today. He didn’t know how to tell them Louis was missing neither did he want to lie to them. The management had suggested him to inform the press and paparazzi about some sudden illness Louis was suffering from in case they noticed something wrong. And Paul had agreed to it because the less people involved, the more they could ensure Louis was safe if at all he had been abducted or something. The three heads snapped up as soon as he entered and he cleared his throat before speaking.

“What are you guys doing here?” He asked. “Didn’t Stacy inform you that the session was cancelled?” He added and Liam did notice the little worry hiding behind Paul’s usually stoic and calm face.

“We wanted to know why.” Zayn said and Harry nodded in agreement while Liam just tried to read Paul’s face.

When Stacy called earlier this morning, Liam had sensed the tension in her voice. He had asked her what happened and why the recording was cancelled but she didn’t answer anything he had asked. He was curious to know. He knew something was wrong when Niall and Louis didn’t pick up his calls in the morning. He knew something was wrong when two guards accompanied him to the studio while usually it would have been just one. And now all Liam wanted was an explanation for everything.

“Um, Niall and Louis were really hammered after going to the club last night and they’re sort of in a bad hangover right now so—“

“Paul? Tell us what’s wrong?” Liam asked, interrupting him and Paul creased his eyebrows. “I know something is wrong, Paul. Tell us! Why did they cancel the recording session all of a sudden? Where are Louis and Niall? They aren’t lifting my calls! And why do you seem so tensed?” Liam demanded, standing up from the couch he was sitting on.

Paul looked back at Liam’s concerned face before looking at the other two behind him that bore the same expressions and Paul sighed, knowing he couldn’t lie to them, At least, not about one of their’s safety. He didn’t know if he should tell them or just lie again, brushing off the truth but he did the former without another thought.

“Louis’ missing.” He mumbled as quickly as he could and there was an awful silence in the room following his revelation.

“What?” Liam asked in disbelief while the other two were, evidently, frozen at the news.

“Yes.” Paul said again, nodding before he motioned for the two other guards to leave them alone for a minute and they obeyed, leaving as they closed the door of the room. Paul led Liam to the couch so he could sit before he spoke again. “Last night, I left the two of them in the club and waited outside with the others, they said they’d call me if they need anything. Hours later, when they didn’t, I went back in but I only found Niall. He was drunk out of his head but I couldn’t find Louis anywhere. The team is on it. We don’t know where he is or what happened to him, but we are trying our best to look for him. His phone’s dead so tracing it’s tracker would take some time but we’re doing our best. Niall’s still passed out so we can’t ask him if he knows anything until he wakes up.”

An unbearable silence ensued as the three of them didn’t know how to react to the news.

“Is-Is it anything serious?” Zayn finally asked, breaking the trance and Paul sighed, shaking his head slightly.

“We don’t have any leads, yet. It’s hard to say.” He replied.

“D-Does Lou’s family . . know?” Harry asked and Paul looked at him.

“We called them last night to ask if he was there, which is stupid of course, he wouldn’t make it to Doncaster this fast. But they know he’s missing and they’ll keep us updated in case Louis shows up ther—“ Paul was interrupted when his phone started ringing and he picked it up without even checking the name, frowning when he heard the other voice, obviously not Louis’.

“Paul? It’s Trevor.” Said the voice and Paul hummed in response. “The team checked the club, nothing suspicious, honestly. However, very few people in the dark corridor between the dance floor and the back entrance had reported hearing pleas for help and odd muffled sounds. But it could be one of those assault cases in clubs like these. We’re not sure, though.”

“Does anyone know all this concerns Louis Tomlinson?” Paul asked.

“No, we didn’t tell anyone because Richard asked not to let it out in the open. But all signs imply abduction, Paul. I- I don’t know really know but . . that’s what it seems. There was an empty syringe found from the corridor when we checked but the manager of the club said it could be any junkie trying to fill their system with that.” Trevor replied, making Paul sigh in disappointment as he closed his eyes for a moment. “Do you want us to inform the police department for an investigation?” Trevor asked after the brief silence.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to ask the management.” Paul said.

“Paul, come on. This could be about Louis’ life! We can’t leave him in danger! Both of us know this is a really big issue. We need to inform the cops, Paul! It’s been almost ten hours since he’s been gone! I don’t bloody care about the management!” Trevor exclaimed and Paul swallowed, thickly.

“I know. I know, Trevor but . . my hands are tied, I can’t do anything. Richard made it clear he’ll keep us updated on what to do. So, we have to ask him before going for the police.”

“For God’s sake, Paul, you’re the head of the security! Talk to them. I’m telling you, this isn’t just some small thing. It’s huge, Paul. There is no evidence, people who are behind this must be professionals! We’re trying to check the CCTV footage but nothing’s there, Paul. The signal goes dead for a whole fifteen minutes and no one knows what happened then!” Trevor said again. “You know what? Just tell them that if anything happens to Tomlinson then their biggest label, One Direction, will be over and I bet you, Richard’s arse will be ready to comply!”

Paul remained silent for a second before answering again.

“Trevor? Right now, I just want you to get the syringe in for examination to the lab.” Paul said and Trevor sighed in annoyance from the other side. “Also, check if Louis’ name appears on passenger’s lists in any of the transport facilities. Can you do that?”

“I will.” Trevor replied, before hanging up.

 

 

 

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Louis’ eyes felt heavy as if something was pasting them shut and he struggled to get them open. His head was throbbing and he felt his own movements uncoordinated. With a fuzzy mind, he tried to understand his situation and realised he felt sick. He wanted to vomit so badly but he hadn’t eaten anything to take it out while his mouth was dry and he had trouble breathing, so he tried to suck in a breath of air through his mouth but noticed something stopping him from doing so. But he couldn’t make out what it was. He knew he felt cold, very cold and he hated the feeling. He remembered Niall’s face, he saw him dancing from the counter. He wanted to search for Paul, he went out, then he noticed—a man following him. _No, it was two men._ They injected him with something. He stopped thinking because his head hurt more.

When he tried to grab his pounding head, Louis panicked upon realizing he couldn’t move. He felt his hands and body tightly held against something solid behind him while he couldn’t get himself to move his legs either. He could feel the cold air against his soles and realised his feet were bare, his shoes not covering them anymore. And then everything came back to him and his eyes shot open, although his vision felt blurry. He closed his eyes, shaking his head once to get rid of the fogginess but it didn’t work. The feeling in his hands and feet returned and he could feel tight ropes holding them together, his heart sank as he realised— _he had been kidnapped._

Louis wanted to let out a frustrated scream because he didn’t do anything to put up a fight against it but he couldn’t because he noticed a cloth pulled between his teeth. Not knowing what else to do, Louis looked around with his vision still trying to adjust and made out two figures in front of him. Whatever they had injected him with, still seemed to have an effect on him and not in a good way because it definitely had blocked his mind from thinking while making him even more nauseous. And his body felt weak, weaker than he was even when he’d have the worst hangovers, the ropes being the only thing helping him sit up in the position he was tied in.

He tried to back into whatever he was tied to when he saw the two of them approach him. Were they the ones who had kidnapped him? He hadn’t even seen their faces properly before. Louis squeezed his eyes tighter and shook his head again finally managing to regain his clear vision as he looked up at both of them standing by his bound feet. The emotionless look on their faces, the creepiness of the place and the helplessness of his situation made him want to throw up, as he felt a burn in his throat.

He shivered with both cold and fear when the men knelt down in front of him and one of them reached for his face, his eyes noticing the guns tucked in both of their belts. He had no choice but to just sit there as one of them reached for knot of the cloth used to gag him.

“If I remove this, I don’t want you to make a sound unless I ask you to say something. Otherwise, I can hurt you in ways you can’t even imagine.” The man threatened in a low and scary voice, sending shivers down Louis’ spine as he only looked back at him with wide eyes filled with fear. The man untied the knot, pulling the cloth from Louis’ mouth before throwing it aside. Louis’ breathing was slow and unsteady as the man placed a hand against his relatively cold forehead. “How much did you give him?” He asked the other one, removing his hand.

“A shot from the syringe you gave us.” The other guy replied, handing a water bottle to the first one.

“I told you to give him just half of it! Now, he’s gonna be sick and puke all over this place! I will not be cleaning it, you three are going to do that!” The man exclaimed in a tone that made Louis’ head hurt more.

The first guy uncapped the bottle before placing it to Louis’ lips but he didn’t part his lips to take it in. No matter how much he wanted to drink it or how much his dry throat craved for it, he knew he’d throw it up back in a second because the vomiting sensation only kept increasing with each passing second.

“Drink it.” The man said in a stern voice but Louis jerked his head away. “Fine. So be it. Thirst yourself, I don’t give a fuck.” He said, closing the bottle before throwing it to the floor. “Did Daniel call?” He asked again, looking at the other guy.

“No. We, um, we told his assistant that we got the guy but he hasn’t called back yet.” The other guy replied making the first one sigh angrily.

“I swear to God, if I have to keep him here for more than a week, I’ll kill him and take my payment myself!” He exclaimed, reaching for Louis’ gag again but Louis moved his head away again.

“Wh-o are y-you?” Louis managed to slur, despite his tiredness.

“That’s none of your business.” The man snapped, grabbing the collar of Louis’ denim jacket.

“What d-do you w-want from me?” He asked against his mind screaming for him to shut up and that seemed to reel the man up. “Why did you k-kidnap me-me?” He asked again when the man didn’t say anything.

“I don’t know.” The man replied, sarcastically, before he let Louis’ collar go and stood back up to leave with the other guy.

“Wait!” Louis called, his voice faltering towards the end. “Don’t leave me h-here. I’m . . I’m cold.” He tried again, hoping they would, at least, tie him up some place warmer.

“I don’t care! You can freeze to death.” The man retorted without even turning around and Louis felt scared but angry.

“Why did you take me? Let me go. I can give you money if this is about ransom! Let me fucking go! You can’t keep me here like this! This is illegal!” Louis called desperately but they didn’t listen, still making their way towards the door of, what seemed like, a warehouse he was bound in. “Help! Someone help me!” He yelled at the top of his already weak voice, hoping someone would hear him and get him out.

But, instead, the first guy stopped in his tracks before turning around and storming towards Louis, who regretted his actions and cowered into himself as much as his binds would allow. He closed his eyes expecting a hit to his body or something, but nothing came and he looked up to see the man bend down and pick up the cloth he had been gagged with. Louis protested but the man forced the cloth back into his mouth before tying the ends tightly behind his head, muffling his weak cries. Louis screamed into the cloth when he felt a blow to the side of his stomach, hunching over in pain as he coughed into the fabric.

“I told you not to make a noise! Unless you want me to shove the cloth down your throat the next time, shut the fuck up!” The man yelled, pulling the knot tighter before leaving Louis alone in the place.

Louis closed his eyes and cried for himself. For the boy who always thought he could handle such situations and boasted about it in front of his friends. For the boy who promised he’d always be there for his mum and sisters.

Was he even going to see them again?


	3. TWO

“I want to talk to Paul. Where is he?” Niall asked Andy, who was standing outside the door to Richard’s office, an unusual seriousness in his otherwise sweet voice.

“He is inside.” Andy mumbled, blocking Niall’s way when he tried to go inside.

“Andy, just let me go inside.” Niall said, angrily, as he tried to push the taller man aside but failed.

“I can’t let you in, Niall. Try to understand. Richard’s orders. None of you are supposed to go inside.” Andy explained, looking up when he saw Trevor approaching the two from a distance.

“Fine, then. I’ll wait until he comes out.” The blonde boy snapped, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood beside Andy.

“It’ll take long, Niall. Now, go. Paul will talk to you when he’s free.” Andy said, his eyes asking Trevor to help him with the situation.

“Do you guys think of all this as a fucking joke? I want to talk to Paul right now! I don’t care about Richard or anyone else’s orders! I want to know what’s going on inside.” Niall yelled, swiftly turning around when Trevor placed a hand on his shoulder. “Where is Louis?” Niall asked, looking at Trevor. “Trevor, where the hell is Louis?” He demanded again when Trevor didn’t answer.

“We have no idea.” Trevor answered, looking down as he shook his head.

“What do you mean, you have no idea? Where did he go? Where is he? I haven’t heard from him since the night before, when we were at the club! None of the other boys are telling me anything since I woke up yesterday! Where the fuck is Louis?” Niall asked again, his tone raising with every sentence.

“We don’t know!” Trevor exclaimed, looking into Niall’s baby blue eyes before sighing. “We don’t know, Niall, honestly. Something happened at the club that night. Something we’re not aware of. And we’re trying to figure it out, okay? We just need you guys to remain calm about the whole thing.” He explained and Niall felt a lump in his throat, making it hard for him to remain calm.

“Wh-what happened to him?” He asked, a few seconds later. “Please tell me he’s okay, Trevor. Please.” He whispered and Trevor squeezed his shoulder in a comforting manner.

“We’re working on it, Niall. We think he got kidnapped but we’re not sure. We haven’t found any evidence from the club. Neither did we get a call or a message if at all it is a kidnapping. But we’re waiting and the team is looking for him. I can promise to keep you guys updated but Paul isn’t going to be free anytime soon.” Trevor told him and Niall just stared at him, feeling guilty.

“It’s my fault.” He finally whispered, clutching his hair. “It’s my fucking fault! I was the one who forced him to go to the club.” He said.

“Niall? Do you remember anything? Anything that you might have found suspicious about him or the people around.” Trevor asked the Irish boy, who cringed his eyebrows, trying to think if he remembered anything. But he didn’t. All he remembers was seeing Louis smiling at him from the counter when he was dancing along with the others. That’s it. He doesn’t remember anything after that and Louis seemed fine until then.

_God, how much he wished Tommo was alright._

“No.” he replied, shaking his head. “As far as I remember, he was just sitting at the counter an-“ He stopped when, suddenly, a memory struck him. “I- I went back to the bartender for another drink, later. I asked him where Louis was and he told me he saw him going t-to the- I don’t know, he pointed towards some corridor. So, I-I thought he was with you or-or Paul or ma-maybe he went to the toilet. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t bother to look for him.” Niall said, finally, breaking down into tears.

Trevor soothingly rubbed his back and pulled him towards one of the chairs in the reception before kneeling down in front of him.

“It wasn’t your fault, Niall. Don’t blame yourself. Whoever has done it was probably planning it since long, we can tell that much.” Trevor said, wiping Niall’s tear-streaked face while he looked back in confusion.

“How do you know that?” Niall asked, softly.

“Because there is no evidence, Niall. We found nothing. Even the CCTV footage of the back entrance the corridor leads to was meddled with. We suspect he was incapacitated with a drug, which cannot be thought of if they had just seen Louis at the club and got the idea of kidnapping him out of the blue. There has got to be someone big behind this but we don’t have a clue about who it could be.” Trevor replied and Niall wanted to cry more. For Louis.

“But it has been more than twenty-four hours! Why d-don’t you track his phone? There’s a tracker in our phones, right?” He asked and Trevor sighed and his words made Niall’s blood go cold.

“We did. The trail ends somewhere outside London, somewhere between a forest. I—“

“You don’t think he’s . . Do you?” Niall asked in a shaky voice, knowing Trevor must have understood.

“Just think positive, Niall. We did send people to search the area but they haven’t returned yet. For now, I need you to get back home, Roger can drop you. Stacy will call you about how to deal with media and fans, in case the news sprea—“ Trevor was interrupted when his eyes travelled to the soundproof glass cabin. Richard’s office. He saw Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee hurriedly rush out of the cabin along with their assistants before Paul walked out, too, followed by Preston.

Trevor saw Paul talking to Preston and Andy before they nodded and left while he walked over towards them.

“Niall, what are you doing here?” Paul asked as soon as his eyes fell on the Irish lad.

“I- I just came to talk to you.” Niall replied.

“I’ll ring you when I’m free, Niall. I hope you understand that we have a lot going on right now and I need to work towards getting him back. Okay? I want you to go home.” Paul said but Niall shook his head.

“What did you find out? You said about getting him back. How do you know where he is?” Niall asked but Paul didn’t reply.

“Paul, did you find out anything?” Trevor asked, hopefully, realizing Niall was right.

“We received a call.” Paul stated, glancing between the two of them.

“And..?” Niall asked again, making Paul shake his head at him.

“You shouldn’t be here, Niall. I’m not telling you. I will keep you update—“

“I want to know what they said during the call! I want to know what happened to him! Those are updates, too. Right?” Niall retorted.

“Trevor? Drop him back at his house, I’ll talk to you once you get ba—“

“No.” Niall argued. “I am not going anywhere until someone tells me what the hell is going on!” He said with finality and Paul looked at him for a few seconds before taking Niall’s hand and leading him towards Richard’s cabin. Trevor followed while Niall didn’t even resist because he wanted to know. Paul opened the door and motioned Niall to sit on a chair before pulling the phone across the table and started playing the phone call they had recorded, as he folded his arms leaning against the table while Trevor and Niall listened intently.

 

 

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Having gained his complete senses again, Louis worried more for himself. He thrashed against the ropes with all his might but the knots were too tight to even loosen, neither could he reach them with his fingers when he tried. Instead, he just ended up tiring himself more. For the millionth time, he looked around the dusty place he was in but there was nothing familiar about it. It was a warehouse, he knew, going by the boxes carelessly thrown around the stranded place. But where exactly was it situated, he didn’t know.

It was like he had been cast away from the outside world because he had no source to even make out what time it was. There were no windows, no open holes, nothing, except for the door at the opposite end. It was dark inside but he couldn’t tell whether it was the same outside or not. They had definitely taken away his watch, phone and wallet. But his mind always kept thinking if anyone even knew he was missing yet. Paul would have found out by now, right? Louis looked around for anything sharp he could find to cut through the ropes but those men had probably cleaned the area around him.

Louis felt sick again, he wanted to vomit but with the cloth in his mouth, he definitely wasn’t going to. So, he tried his best to get rid of the feeling. But he also felt an urge to pee, he didn’t even remember the last time he used the toilet. Probably before leaving his house yesterday evening, at least he hoped it had only been overnight since he was taken, although he didn’t know if he’d even be given that liberty right now. And to top it all off, he needed water. Craved for it, honestly. The insides of his throat felt like they were on fire.

Minutes later, the door opened pouring in daylight and a man Louis hadn’t seen before entered with a black bag, a cloth and a water bottle in his hand Louis was glad he had brought along.  The man crouched down, setting the things beside Louis, and untied the cloth from his mouth before pouring some water on the cloth he had brought. He brought it up and wiped Louis’ face, making him sigh in relief as the warm water felt good against his cold skin. However, Louis frowned seeing him close the bottle and place it aside.

“C-Can I have some wa-ter?” He asked, softly but the man shook his head.

“Nope. Seems like you pissed Carter off last night so he’s not giving you anything.” The man answered, standing up from his position while Louis followed with his eyes.

“No, I-I’m sorry. I just want some. Please?” He asked again and the man sighed, looking at Louis for a moment.

“Alright, fine.” He huffed, picking up the bottle and uncapping it before placing it to Louis’ lips.

And, boy, Louis had never been more thankful for water before as he took in slow and small sips of the warm liquid. A few seconds later, the man pulled it away and Louis breathed in relief. But his moment of bliss didn’t last long when he felt sick again and had the urge to remove all the water he had just drank.

“Are you alright?” The man asked when Louis’ breathing got rapid and Louis shook his head in response.

“I-I think I’m going to t-throw up.” He said, coughing a second later.

He saw the man rush over behind him to untie the ropes that pinned his body to the pole and Louis hunched over as soon as they were undone, throwing up whatever little water he had taken before, feeling tears cloud his vision. Seconds later, he felt the wet cloth against his face again, letting out a weak whimper as the man wiped his face once more before slipping his gag back into Louis’ mouth and tying the ends tightly. Louis looked up in confusion when he saw the guy pick up the black bag he had brought along with him. But before he could contemplate anything, the bag went over his head and he was hauled over the man’s shoulder. Bound and weak, Louis didn’t fight as the man carried him somewhere. After a few minutes, he was finally thrown to the floor, earning a muffled yelp as pain shot up his body.

“What the fuck took you so long, Brad?” Louis heard a voice ask.

“He threw up.” The man, who had brought him here, replied.

“Told you to give him only half a shot.” The previous voice snapped and Louis recognized it, it was the man from before. Carter.

Louis was pulled up to his knees and the bag was removed from his head. Squinting his eyes, Louis looked around seeing three other men in the room. Two he knew, one he didn’t.

“Place him on the chair. He can barely sit up.” Carter ordered and the man holding Louis picked him up with ease, placing him on the chair another guy pulled out while Carter took a seat opposite him with a disposable phone and a file in his hands. “Louis William Tomlinson, 22, originally from Doncaster, born as Louis Austin, member of boyband One Direction, three full-length successful albums, awards, three tours, a film, dating University student Eleanor Calder, blah .. blah .. blah ..” He trailed off, throwing the file aside. “Impressive for just over three years in limelight, ain’t it?”

Louis remained silent as he stared at him with curious, wide eyes, wondering who these people were. They, literally, had his whole information in that file. They weren’t just some robbers or jobless guys, like he thought, who had taken him from the club just for ransom and realised they must have been planning it since long. But who were they? What did he even do?

“Now we have a phone call to make, Tomlinson, so I don’t want a single sound from you unless I allow you to speak. I guess you’ve already understood what we’re capable of.” He glowered before opening the phone and dialing a number, putting it on speaker. The phone rang for a good ten seconds but no one picked it up. “Well, seems like nobody’s interested to pick up the call, huh? Either they’re too busy searching for you or they’re just ignoring it because they don’t want to deal with your situation.” Carter mocked but Louis didn’t let it affect him. _Paul is looking for him. He is._ He told himself as he saw Carter dial again. But, this time, someone answered.

It was silent for a few seconds as neither Carter, nor the person spoke and Louis couldn’t find out who it was.

“Hello? Griffiths speaking.” The voice said. _Richard,_ Louis thought. _Wait, why did they call him?_ “Who is this?” Richard asked again after a few more seconds.

“Who do you think it is?” Carter quipped while Richard didn’t answer for a couple of seconds.

“What do you want? Where the hell is Tomlinson?” He asked and Carter smiled, meeting Louis’ scared eyes.

“He’s right here. With us.” He answered.

“Look, whatever this is, we can sort this out. Just let him go, he doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Richard said and Louis sensed the tension in his voice.

“Come on, Griffiths. You know he has a lot to do with this and I’m not going to waste my time explaining it to you again. Now, listen to me, carefully. I want you to give up your whole management label if you want to have your little singer boy back. Oh, and no sma—“

“That is ridiculous! We can meet up and talk about this, calmly, and come up with a negotiation or something. But, for now, just let him fucking go! Don’t involve him in this management shit, you fucking basta—“

“Uh huh, watch your words, Richard. You could get Louis in some serious trouble. And I can promise you, you’ll be regretting your choices later.” Carter said, interrupting him. “I made the deal clear. Now it’s your choice whether you accept it or drop it. Because if you choose the latter, I wouldn’t mind putting a bullet through his head right this moment and save both of us some time. Although, you’d lose your fucking management’s biggest label, wouldn’t you? What do you have to say?”

“I need some time. Give me some time to think about it.” Richard said and Carter shrugged, trying to think.

“I’ll tell you how much time later.” He finally replied after a few seconds of silence.

“Listen, I cannot give up the whole label. I- It’s not in my hands! I’m not the only one who handles this management. There are other people. I can’t give it up on my own. I hope you understand that.” Richard tried to explain after a few seconds.

“Of course, I do.” Carter said, sarcastically, looking up at one his men. “Get the knife.” He ordered, making Louis panic while the man picked up a knife from a table a few steps away.

“What are you doing?” Richard asked in a panicked tone but Carter didn’t answer him.

“Take off a finger.” Carter ordered again and Louis shook his head, looking at him with pleading and teary eyes. Carter ignored everyone as he motioned something to the guy standing beside Louis. A muffled sob escaped Louis’ lips as the guy lowered his denim jacket down to his elbows, revealing the sleeves of his white T-shirt.

“Wait, no! What are you doing?” Richard asked again. “What the fuck are you doing?” He exclaimed as Carter handed the phone to the guy beside Louis before taking the knife, rolling up Louis’ sleeve and placing it against his arm. Louis was thankful the weapon wasn’t near his finger, yet worried since the knife was still against his skin.

“I’m doing what I need to do for you to comply.” Carter retorted, slowly, dragging the knife along Louis’ skin, luckily not in a hurting way.

“Wait! I don’t even know if you actually have Louis. I want proof! I need proof that he is alright an-and alive so I can comply!” Richard said in a hurry but Carter made a long cut in Louis’ arm with the knife in a swift move, making the blue-eyed boy let out a pain-filled cry, tears spilling from his eyes.

“No! What did you do? Louis? Louis, can you hear me?” Richard yelled through the device.

“I gave you the proof. You heard him scream. He’s alive.” Carter said, dropping the knife as he looked down at Louis, who was still crying at the pain in his arm. “Oh no, no. Don’t cry, little kid! It’s okay. I know it hurts, but I need you shut it!” He yelled, making Louis flinch as he tried to control his hysterical cries, squeezing his eyes shut.

“I want to talk to him! Let me talk to him. Privately, not on speaker. Please? Please?” Richard pleaded and Carter sighed in annoyance.

“Fine. I give you fifteen seconds. Talk whatever you want. But if I sense anything suspicious, he’s going to get it worse.” He said, removing the phone from speaker and placing it to Louis’ ear before pulling the cloth out of his mouth.

“Louis? Can you hear me?” Richard asked and Louis let out a weak hum in response. “Are you alright?” He asked, feeling thankful that he got a response from the boy.

“No.” Louis cried, trying to control his sobs again.

“I’m not on speaker, right?” Richard asked and Louis answered with another _no._ “Louis, did they ask you anything? Anything about the management? About the band? Or the label’s contracts? Did they ask you anything, Louis?”

“No.” Louis replied, feeling confused by the questions. The line was silent for a moment before Louis heard a voice that made him feel the least bit hopeful.

“Louis, this is Paul. Do you have any idea where you are? Or who those people are? Anything you know about where they are keeping you?” Paul asked.

“No. I- I don’t kno-ow anything.” Louis answered, making Paul let out a sigh.

“Don’t worry, Louis. We’ll get you out of there, alright? I just need you to keep fighting, don’t give up. Okay? They’ll, probably, try to break you but you shouldn’t let them. You’re a strong boy, aren’t you? We are looking for you.” Paul encouraged and although it felt comforting, his words also made Louis want to cry more.

“Get me out of he-here, ple-ease. Plea—“ He cried again but Carter slipped the cloth back into his mouth, silencing him again.

“Time’s up!” He said, putting the phone to his own ear. “You’ve already cost him a finger, Griffiths. Now, he’s got nine remaining and you have nine days to oblige. And if you don’t, then, I’d be happily willing to put him out of his misery on the tenth. Also, stay close to your phone, you could expect another call soon.” He said, hanging up before they could say anything else and threw the phone over to one his men. “Destroy it and inform Daniel later.”

Louis watched him walk over towards the table and pick up a syringe as he examined it before walking back to Louis’ chair. He looked up at Carter, slightly shaking his head, not wanting to take yet another drug and feel sick again. But, of course, he had no say against them and he felt Carter inject the drug into a vein in his arm, letting out a weak whimper.

“Goodnight, Tomlinson.” He heard Carter say, patting the bleeding bruise on Louis' arm before he slipped into oblivion.


	4. THREE

"Mr. Griffiths, it's been over forty hours since Louis was kidnapped. We cannot compromise his safety for the sake of the management's reputation! We need to report the case to the Police Department." Paul suggested while Richard remained silent.

"I know, Paul. But .. we cannot report a case and afford to let the news get to the media and outside world. They will probably skin us with questions and accusations until we manage to get Louis Tomlinson back! They will bug his family, the other four, you, me, Magee, Cowell. Everyone. And all this publicity could prove harmful for Tomlinson." Richard explained, a creepy silence lingering in the room followed by his opinion.

Paul could understand what Griffiths was trying to say. They could hurt Louis more if the news spreads and he remembered Louis' scared voice on the phone call in the morning, his terrified voice still haunting the back of his mind. He felt another knot in his stomach recalling the conversation.

"I understand." Paul mumbled, looking down at his hands. "I don't even get what they want from us. Why do they want you to give up the whole label?"

Richard didn't answer his question, picking up a different topic instead and Paul noticed.

"You said you had a search team to the tracked location. What did they find?" He asked.

"Nothing." Paul replied. "Not even his phone. They must have destroyed it or something, we don't really know."

"And what about the contact they called us from?" He further asked and Paul sighed. 

"It was probably a disposable phone. We couldn't track it, its signal was jammed. Moreover, they must've done the same thing with it, too. I don't think they'll call us from the same number next time." Paul told him. "How did they even get the office number?" He asked and saw Richard stutter, trying to answer.

"I d-don't know. They .. must have forced it out of Tomlinson." He explained and Paul nodded, slightly.

Paul closed his eyes for a second, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to think again. He knew the management had to act. And had to act fast. He couldn't let Louis suffer for something he had nothing to do with. A shiver ran down his spine at the memory of what they had done to him during the call. He couldn't believe how someone could be so heartless to harm an innocent person. Louis was practically like his son and he had failed him. Failed him by leaving him and Niall alone inside the club. Maybe, he should have stayed inside with them then he might have been able to do something to save the boy.

"We need to get him out, Paul." Richard said again, interrupting Paul's thoughts. "After what happened this morning, I don't-- I don't think they'll hesitate to hurt him more. But we cannot give up the whole label. It's not under my control."

"Why can't you? You own it! You were the co-founder along with Magee. Why is it not in your hands?" Paul asked, making Richard sigh.

"It's complicated, Paul. I can't tell you, it's confidential." Richard answered.

"For God's sake, maintaining secrets won't help Louis out of there! He hasn't even done anything wrong to be suffering like that! He's innocent! We don't even know who those people are!" Paul exclaimed, leaning forward in his chair.

"But we know what they're capable of! And they won't let Tomlinson go until we give them the whole label! They'll probably kill him if we don't do what th--"

"Then just negotiate! At least, give it a try!" 

"I cannot, Paul. Those men want the whole label, nothing less. Negotiating and convincing won’t work. And I cannot even lie about giving them the whole label because I only have control over half of it!" Richard explained, making Paul scrunch his eyebrows.

"Then, who has control over the other half? Harry Magee?" Paul asked him but Richard shook his head.

"No. Both of us can only give up half of the deals." He answered.

"Is it Simon Cowell? I will talk to him about it if you wa--" 

"No! None of us have control over the other half. I can't tell you who it is but I can just tell you that we can't access that person right now."

"This is about Louis' life, Mr. Griffiths! It's his fucking life we're talking about!" Paul exclaimed.

"I know. And Tomlinson’s rescue is our first priority. Why can't you and your team try and track him down?" Richard asked and Paul shook his head.

"We are a security team, Mr. Griffiths. We're bodyguards. We are trained to fight people and protect the ones we’re supposed to, not for investigating cases. We need, at least, a detective to lead us with the case and maybe me and my team can execute it then." He explained.

Richard buried his head in his hands, remaining silent for a good ten seconds before sighing and speaking again.

"Fine." He mumbled. "Hire a private detective. Someone who is capable of solving something like this. But please make sure that the news of Louis' disappearance does not slip out."

Paul felt thankful he had the opportunity to hire someone for the case. He, immediately, nodded before getting up and rushing out of the cabin to follow the orders as soon as possible.

 

 

 

\------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Having lost track of time, Louis slowly started to lose his mind, too. He had woken up feeling the way he had done the last time, probably worse, finding himself bound to the pole in the large warehouse once again. But now, he was feeling terribly cold. Or was his body just shivering? He couldn’t understand. He glanced down at his numb left arm, seeing it had been bandaged but he couldn’t sense anything around the wound. He wasn’t wearing his denim jacket anymore, leaving him with only the T-shirt on and he had never wished for a jacket more. His bladder was painfully filled and he knew he had to use the toilet but he couldn’t lose the last bit of dignity he had left, being tied up like a dog and treated even worse was too much for him to bear already.

Louis closed his eyes, resting his head against the pole and tried to imagine himself back in his flat with Eleanor snuggled into him on the couch as they watched some cheesy, romantic movie but his feelings were too overwhelming to stop him from panicking more. He had given up struggling since he could feel his skin tearing under the ropes. He tried to count how much time it had been since he was here. He was drugged and probably asleep for the whole next day, he just knew that. But after being drugged again he forgot how long he was out for. Three? No, probably, four? Is it the fourth day? He forgot again and gave up.

Why wasn’t anyone coming to get him out? It should’ve been long enough for someone to look for him. People should be knowing he is missing by now .. Niall, the boys, his family, media, fans. Then, why isn’t anyone coming to get him out?

He shook his head, getting rid of the thoughts. He knew he shouldn’t think much, otherwise he’ll lose it before anyone even finds him. But being alone and bound, he had no other choice. He couldn’t even talk to himself because every time he did, he’d only get negative thoughts. Thoughts about what could happen to him.  _But, why him?_ He asked himself for the thousandth time. Why did they even take him if they had something against the management? One Direction wasn’t the only label the management had. Yet, they chose it. Chose him. And he didn’t know why.

 _He has a lot to do with this,_ he remembered Carter tell Richard on the phone. Did he really have anything to do with all this? He tried to strain his mind to recall but whatever drug he was given had blocked his mind from its extent. Moving his head away from the pole, he brought it back, bumping his head slightly against the metal. Slowly moving his eyes up, he looked at the slender, rusty poles running along the high roof of the warehouse, actually trying to find any way of making out what time it was. But there was nothing. He couldn’t know anything unless someone opened the door.

He emptily gazed at the roof for what seemed like hours before he heard the door open and it was dark outside, probably night time. He saw two men walk in, probably one of those who had been in the room .. yesterday? One of them was carrying a small bag in his hand, Louis noticed as they approached him. Louis didn’t know if he should cower away or face them because he saw one of them was Carter. He saw Carter drag one of the boxes in front of Louis’ bound form on the floor before sitting down on top of it.

The other guy crouched down and pulled the cloth from Louis’ mouth, letting it hang from his neck, before opening the bag he had brought. Louis saw him remove a small packet of crisps along with a sandwich and felt his stomach growl as he was extremely famished, not having eaten anything since the morning he was kidnapped. He wasn’t untied from his state but didn’t complain as the guy fed him while Carter remained silent, watching the whole time. Once done with the food, the man reached for a bottle of water from the bag but stopped in his movements when Carter spoke.

“Oh, no, Tyler. Put it down.” He said, motioning towards the bottle and Louis frowned at his words as the guy, Tyler, put it back in the bag. Louis saw Carter stand up before walking over and crouching down in front of the bound boy. “Thirsty, huh?” Carter said in a mocking tone, the smile not leaving his face. “So, why don’t you answer what I ask and you can have it, then?”

“Wh-What do you want?” Louis stuttered, seeing him lean his face dangerously close to his.

“Your band, One Direction, signed an initial contract with Modest, right?” Carter asked and Louis seemed confused.  _Initial contract?_  For some reason, his brain wasn’t able to decipher the words or the motive behind them. “Answer me!” He growled when Louis didn’t answer, making the younger boy flinch at the tone.

“What d-do you mean?” Louis asked again as his eyes watched Carter get up from his position and walk over to the other side of his legs, where Tyler was sitting with the bag.

“You and your four other bandmates agreed to a deal when you first signed to Modest and Syco as a band, didn’t you?” Carter asked again as he removed something from the bag.

“Yes.” Louis answered, scrunching his eyebrows to make out what the black-coloured thing in Carter’s hand was.

“What was the deal?” He asked, crouching down in front of Louis again but Louis was too busy trying to identify the thing in his hand. “I asked, what was the fucking deal?” Carter asked again, making Louis look up at him.

What the hell does their contract have to do with this? Louis tried to recall their first meeting with Simon Cowell and the management and wondered what deal Carter was talking about. Why is that even significant now?

“Why are you asking me this?” Louis asked back which seemed to annoy Carter, making Louis’ fear increase as he saw him place the phone-like device against Louis’ thigh.

“What was the deal?” He asked, ignoring Louis’ question while Louis still tried to recall which deal he was talking about.

 _Signing as a band, not talking shit in interviews, shouldn’t sing about sex or curse in their songs, can’t talk about management and band issues in public, their time as a band should last at least for six years, no addressing Larry questions or rumours .. there are so many. Which one does he want? And, why?_  Louis thought again but his thoughts were interrupted when Carter stuffed the cloth back into his mouth before pressing a button on the device, making Louis scream as he felt a jolt of electricity spread to his body from his leg for a second. Louis felt tears form in his eyes again as he fell limp against the ropes while his breathing seemed forced and unsteady. But he didn’t have much time to recover as Carter grabbed his jaw, forcing him to look at him. Pulling the cloth out again, Carter placed the device against his throat, making Louis whimper.

“Tell me what the deal was or, this time, you’re going to damage your pretty voice.” He said again and Louis gulped before speaking.

“There were so many. Which one are you talking about?” He asked, making Carter sigh as he looked back and gave a confused look to Tyler, who shrugged in response.

“How many were there?” Carter asked again in the same cold tone, turning back to look at Louis, who tried to think hard. “How many?” He asked, nudging the device against Louis’ throat.

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” He exclaimed, hurriedly. “There were a lot. I- I don’t remember.” Louis said.

Carter glared at him for a few seconds before looking at Tyler again.

“Call Gerrard. Ask him to get the damn file.” He ordered as the other one nodded, getting up to walk out of the place.

Louis let out a relieved breath when Carter removed the device from his throat, placing it aside before picking up the bottle from the bag. Opening the cap, he shoved it against Louis’ lips while he tried to take it in but it was pulled away as soon as he took a few sips and the cloth was forced back into his mouth. Louis just looked down, trying to wallow in his pain while the two of them remained in silence until Tyler returned with Gerrard who had a file in his hand. Carter took it in his hands, flipping the pages, frantically before letting out an angry sigh and removing his phone, typing in a number.

“Watch him.” He ordered the other two before he walked out of the door, slamming it behind him.

It was almost after a few more minutes that Carter came back in, shoving the file into Gerrard’s hands before leaning down and pulling the cloth out of Louis’ mouth.

“You signed a contract with Modest and Simon Cowell a couple of years back, right? Why don’t you tell me about that one?” He said, grabbing Louis’ collar and dragging him up against his bonds. “What was the contract?”

“What contract?” Louis asked in confusion.

“Well, you should know.” Carter snapped, his cold eyes piercing into Louis’, making him want to run away from his grasp but he couldn’t.

“No, I d-didn’t sign anythi- I .. don’t know what you’re talking about.” Louis said, his mind still trying to think but he found it unresponsive.

“Don’t lie to me, Tomlinson. I know you did!” He yelled, making Louis flinch at his tone as he squeezed his eyes shut to think. “Tell me or I’ll—“

“Carter?” Someone called and Louis opened his eyes to see it was Gerrard. “Forcing information out of him will not work right now. He’s still under the influence of that drug, it will be hard for him to remember. Give him some time to get over it. He’s probably still feeling sleepy. Wait until morning or a few more hours!”

“I do not have time to wait! Daniel has been bugging me with his phone calls and I have no answer yet!” He said, dropping Louis back on the ground.

 _Who’s Daniel?_  Louis thought. As far as he knew, none of these four men have that name.  _Are there more people behind this? Someone else who controls them?_ He thought but then didn’t want to know if there were more.

“Alright. Maybe I could do something to fix his sleep.” Carter said as Louis saw him pick up the water bottle again before opening it and crouching down beside Louis. The bound boy gasped as Carter emptied the bottle, pouring it over his face and causing the chilled liquid to drench his face, neck and a bit of his upper body. Louis looked at him with wide eyes as he shivered worse than he was, his teeth chattering involuntarily. “Stop that annoying sound!” Carter exclaimed as he pushed the cloth back in, tightening the knot before patting Louis’ cheek. “I guess that’ll help wake you out of your numbness.”

Louis closed his eyes, whimpering as he tried to move his face away from Carter’s touch. He wanted to cry again and wished they would just drug him again to put him out of his discomfort.

“What happened? Are you feeling cold?” Carter mocked, looking at Louis’ shivering form. “Don’t worry, you just have to sit like this for only a few more hours. We’ll come to check up on you again and this time I won’t go without an answer.” He said, wiping some of the water streaks from Louis’ face.

Louis looked at him, trying to say something but the cloth didn’t provide him much clear speech and he heard Carter sigh in annoyance as he reached for his gag again.

“What?” He asked, impatiently.

“I-I need to-to use the toilet.” Louis managed to stutter, making Carter chuckle as he slipped the cloth back into Louis’ mouth.

“I don’t care what you want. Make yourself comfortable right where you are because you’re not getting out of this room unless it is for you to get back to your home when your management complies or to die if they don’t.” He said with finality before standing up and leaving with the other two, making Louis cry more as he was left in his own state of sadness and misery.


	5. FOUR

“I cannot believe you waited this long to report the case, Mr. Higgins.” Alan Waters, the detective they had consulted, exclaimed once Paul told him about Louis Tomlinson being kidnapped a couple of nights ago when he and Niall were at the club.

“It wasn’t me, Mr. Waters. It was the management.” Paul replied, shifting in his seat. “And now, we need your help to get the poor boy out of there. But we want the issue to stay under wraps, the media and fans can’t know about this. It could be stressful for everyone associated with him and we also can’t risk his safety considering we don’t know what they might do to him.”

“I understand.” He mumbled. “When did you last spot him?” He added and Paul sighed before answering.

“We don’t know exactly, but we do suspect that he was taken when he was heading for the club’s back entrance. The footage from the CCTVs was tampered with and we think it took place at that time.” Paul replied. “The team found an empty syringe which had been filled with dimorphine but we’re not sure if it was used on him or someone else.” He added and saw Waters nod.

“Any suspicions about who it could be?” Alan asked, making Paul shake his head.

“Not yet.”

“Did Tomlinson have any enemies? Or anyone who possibly had a grudge on him or something?”

“No. I- I don’t think it has something to do with him. They have something against the management.” Paul told him and Alan frowned.

“How do you know that?” He asked.

“We actually received a call yesterday and .. we have a recording, maybe you could listen to it.” Paul said, almost forgetting he had brought the recorder with the call on it, as he removed it from his pocket and placed it on the table.

“Sure. I will. Anything else that you know about it?” Alan asked again and Paul thought for a second but then again shook his head.

“Just .. we only have eight more days left before they kill him and we’d appreciate it if you could start investigating as soon as you can. None of us really want him to suffer anymore.” Paul told him and Alan nodded as he stood up from his chair, followed by Paul.

“I guess this makes it my priority case. I will start working on it right from today. Don’t worry, I will give it my best effort and I will keep you updated with the progress.” Alan said, reaching to shake Paul’s hand.

“My card. Just in case you need to contact.” Paul said, handing Alan the card, who took it before looking up at Paul. “Thank you, Mr. Waters.”

“Alan. Call me Alan.” He replied, giving Paul a small smile, who returned it.

“Well, then, I’m Paul.” He said, awkwardly, before turning to leave the office.

 

 

 

\-------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis just closed his eyes, pressing his back against the pole as much as he could to at least get his body to stop shivering but it didn’t work. He couldn’t even try to sleep due to the cold while he just gave in to his situation at the moment. He felt angry because he couldn’t even get himself to try and get himself out of this mess. He never thought he would even find himself in a situation like this and so he had given in to his pathetic self. He was tied to a pole with no means of escape in some place he didn’t know, forced to sit in his own urine in one of the most uncomfortable manner while being starved and dehydrated for God-knows-how long.

And all he could do was cry. Just cry because he couldn’t do anything to help himself. Cry because he hated himself for not fighting the day he was being taken. Cry because he wasn’t even fighting when those men were having their way with him. He never thought he would even wish to be drugged but, right now, he did. He wished they would just drug him again, letting him sleep until the day he was going to get out of here. But .. would he get out of here? _No, no! No! You will. You will! Paul said he was is looking for you!_ Louis told himself, trying not to give up.

 _I just need you to keep fighting, don’t give up._ He repeated Paul’s words in his head. But was he really so strong to not give up until however long he was going to be here? But he knew he had to. He might give up on himself but he couldn’t do it for the sake of the people who were waiting for him.

Louis opened his eyes, eyeing the door to see if anyone would come but nobody was. He couldn’t decide whether he even wanted them to come. He didn’t have a track of time but he knew he had been sitting here for hours since Carter and the two others left.

But what Louis kept wondering about was the fact that the man was talking about some contract. A contract he signed with Modest and Syco. Did he really do that? Louis couldn’t even remember if he did. He recalled Richard asking him if they questioned him about any of the management or band’s contracts. But what did all this have to do with him? Why did they take him if they had something to do with the management? Of course, he knew he was a part of Modest’s biggest and most successful label. But nothing made sense to him, right now. And the anticipation of what could happen was what was bothering him the most. And he didn’t know how long he could hold up with it. He could give anything to see his mum’s face again.

 

 

 

\---------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

“Paul, where the hell were you? You haven’t been answering our calls or messages!” Zayn exclaimed as soon as he saw Paul.

Paul didn’t know what to reply as he hadn’t expected Zayn to drop by at the office. Obviously, the other two must be pissed at him, too, because he did ignore them for a while because he didn’t seem to find the strength to face them. Especially, when they had no leads at all about Louis or his whereabouts. He opened his mouth to say something but Zayn beat him to it.

“Niall told me about the call. What the fuck do they want from him? You better give me some good news, Paul! Did you find out anything? Where is he? Who are they?” Zayn asked, frantically while Paul just remained calm until he finished.

“Look, Zayn, we need to stay calm. We didn’t find anything yet. I talked to a detective about it and we are starting investigation so it shouldn’t be long. Don’t worry, Zayn. We will get him out.” He reassured but Zayn only shook his head.

“How could you expect me to stay calm. It’s been three days! I swear, if he loses another finger or if anything else happens to him, I will personally go and file a case against them if the management does not act soon. It’s like they don’t give a shit about him! And why do they want the whole bloody management! What do they think they’re going to do with it?”

“Zayn, please. Keep your voice down. Most people around don’t know about this issue.” Paul said, pulling Zayn along to his office before letting him sit in one of the chairs.

“Tell me what is going on, Paul. Who the hell are those people? And .. what do they want?” Zayn asked again, making Paul sigh.

“I think they have something against the management. They said they would call again but they haven’t yet. And we are still waiting for a call. We don’t even know how to contact them even if we want to tell them something. We really don’t know what their intention is or what they have to do with Louis. Until now, all we know is what I just told you. We couldn’t track the location the last time they called because we weren’t aware. Luckily, the auto-recording feature on the office phones helped. Other than that, I know nothing, Zayn. Literally, nothing.” Paul replied, looking down guiltily while Zayn only kept looking at the older man.

“What about his family?” Zayn asked, a few seconds later.

“We informed them about the situation and … I think you can their reaction.” He answered, finally, looking up at Zayn.

“Why is this happening to him? Why isn’t the management doing something?” Zayn yelled, making Paul sigh, shaking his head.

“There are some problems inside the management and .. they’re confidential. So, even I don’t know much about them. But they’re trying to sort them out to help Louis out.” Paul replied and Zayn scoffed, bitterly.

“They don’t do anything. They just don’t care. I fucking hate them.” Zayn mumbled.

“Zayn?” Paul said after a few seconds of silence, going over to him. “It’s okay. He’ll be fine. We will get him back.” He said while Zayn just nodded without replying.

 

 

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis was woken up by someone untying his numb hands as he whimpered when he felt a sharp pain in his arm from the wound. He frowned in confusion, feeling himself being made to lie on the dusty floor. Louis opened his eyes and looked around to see Gerrard untying his ankles once being done with his hands. Somewhere in between his attempts to calm himself down, he had fallen asleep, giving in to the cold.

He saw Tyler lift him and place him against the pole again before helping him wear the jacket he had before, making Louis let out a shaky breath of relief at the warm feeling. Tyler crouched down and untied the cloth, removing it from his mouth before a bottle of warm water was pushed to his lips and he drank almost half of it. Once done, he just sat silently, as the cloth was pulled between his teeth again but he panicked when Gerrard tied a black cloth over his eyes. Louis tried to protest but Tyler held his hands together as he felt rope tying them in front.

Once Gerrard made sure the blindfold was tight, he helped Tyler pull Louis to his feet. Having been bound in one position for days, Louis’ legs faltered with weakness but the two of them helped him stand before he was walked somewhere. Louis had no choice but to comply because he couldn’t even see. After a few minutes of walking with struggle, he was finally pushed into a chair and the blindfold was untied. He saw Carter leaning against the table in front of him while playing with what seemed like pliers in his hands.

“So, you’re awake now?” He heard Carter ask mockingly as he put down the pliers before looking up at Louis.

Louis tried to stay calm despite the fear rushing through him when Carter made his way towards his chair. Placing his hands on the armrests of the chair, Carter leaned down to meet Louis’ fearful eyes before he pulled the cloth out of his mouth, making Louis cough slightly.

“Now that you are out of your daze, why don’t you answer my question again?” He said, a smirk on his lips that made Louis fear more for some reason.

“I don’t know.” Louis replied in a low voice, making Carter sigh as he kept staring down at him.

“You don’t know about a contract you signed?” He asked and Louis shook his head.

“No. I .. didn’t sign anything.” He replied but flinched when Carter released his grip on the chair but didn’t do anything to Louis against what he had anticipated. Carter turned back to the table, picking up the pliers again making Louis’ body tense more, not knowing what was going on in Carter’s mind.

“Well, from what I’ve seen, you never like to do things in the easy way, do you?” He said, turning to face Louis with the pliers in his hands. “Would you do it now or would you like to have it the hard way?”

“Look, I don’t know anything. I don’t know what you’re talking abou—“ Louis said again but was cut off when Carter grabbed his bound hands, slamming them on the table and unclenching his fist before holding the pliers around his left index finger, making Louis whimper.

“Tell me or this time you will really lose your finger!” He said again, impatiently, his grip not wavering on the weapon while Louis couldn’t stop his fingers from trembling with fear.

“I don’t know. I don’t know!” He exclaimed, looking at Carter with pleading eyes.

“Tell me what the bloody contract was!” Carter yelled, pressing on the ends, making Louis cry out as he felt the pressure of the tool on his finger.

“What contract?” He asked again, confusedly, while Carter’s grip didn’t loosen on the pliers.

“You signed it, didn’t you? You should know.” He said and Louis shook his head again.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know what contract you’re talking about.” Louis said, feeling tears sting his eyes again.

“Stop lying!” Carter yelled again and Louis flinched, not moving his hand even an inch to avoid getting hurt. But either way, he knew Carter was going to hurt him.

“No, I’m not lying! Please, I really don’t know!” Louis pleaded while Carter clenched his jaw.

“So, you’re telling me that you don’t know about a contract you signed?” He asked, tightening his grip on the tool some more and Louis let out another panicked cry, shaking his head continuously.

“I did not sign anything! I didn’t sign any contract after joining the band! I didn’t!” Louis exclaimed, gritting his teeth in pain, seeing his finger slowly turn a tint of blue due to lack of circulation.

“You didn’t sign any contract?” Carter asked again and Louis shook his head, closing his eyes, unable to take anymore of the pain in his finger. “Not with Modest? Not with Syco? Nothing with any other label of your management?” He asked further and Louis shook his head for each question.

Louis felt a tear escape his eye as he bit his lip to control his cries, gasping in relief when he the tool released his finger. He, immediately, brought his hands to his chest, holding his finger with the other hand as he finally let himself cry at the pain that followed. He flinched hearing Carter slam the pliers back onto the table before he picked up a phone and started dialing in a number as he came over and stood beside Louis’ chair.

“Same rule. No talking unless I ask you to. Get it?” He said and Louis nodded without looking up, jerking his head away when Carter patted it like a dog.


	6. FIVE

Alan removed the recording device that Paul had given to him and played the recording, trying to pay attention to every line exchanged. The first time he heard it, everything seemed confusing and vague. Paul said that they think it doesn’t have anything to do with Louis Tomlinson but with the management. Then, why take Tomlinson? There are many artists signed with Modest. Sighing, he replayed the call.

_“Who is this?”_

_“Who do you think it is?”_

_“What do you want? Where the hell is Tomlinson?”_

_“He’s right here. With us.”_

_“Look, whatever this is, we can sort this out. Just let him go, he doesn’t have anything to do with this.”_ He heard Richard Griffiths’ voice say and frowned, pausing the recording before playing the line again.

How does Griffiths know it has nothing to do with Louis Tomlinson? Maybe Richard knows something. He wondered, pondering over it for a while before deciding to continue it.

 _“Come on, Griffiths. You know he has a lot to do with this an—“_ Alan paused again, feeling even more confused now.

If Richard was hiding something, then he should know exactly what’s going on, implying the grudge does not have anything to do with Tomlinson. But if Richard’s knowledge is true, then why did the man say Tomlinson has a lot to do with everything?

_“--nd I’m not going to waste my time explaining it to you again. Now, listen to me, carefully. I want you to give up your whole management label if you want to have your little singer boy back. Oh, and no sma—“_

_“That is ridiculous! We can meet up and talk about this, calmly, and come up with a negotiation or something. But, for now, just let him fuc—“_

He felt confused again by the things going so fast. Why do they want the whole management label? There was no reason, no explanation, but Richard suggested a negotiation. Without asking for a reason.

_“--king go! Don’t involve him in this management shit, you fucking basta—“_

_“Uh huh, watch your words, Richard. You could get Louis in some serious trouble. And I can promise you, you’ll be regretting your choices later. I made the deal clear. Now it’s your choice whether you accept it or drop it. Because if you choose the latter, I wouldn’t mind putting a bullet through his head right this moment and save both of us some time. Although, you’d lose your fucking management’s biggest label, wouldn’t you? What do you have to say?”_

Of course, they’d lose One Direction, Modest’s biggest label. But even if they save him, they’d have to give up the whole management. What kind of a deal was that?

_“I need some time. Give me some time to think about it.”_

He paused it. Again. Richard didn’t ask anything. Without explanations, without reasons, he asked time to think. Either he is stupid or smarter than he thinks.

 _“I’ll tell you how much time later.”_ He heard the man say but noticed the long gap. A lot of seconds. Was he thinking about how much time to give or an answer? It felt unusual because as far as he knew, kidnappers always work out a plan first and call the victim’s associates only then.

_“Listen, I cannot give up the whole label. I- It’s not in my hands! I’m not the only one who handles this management. There are other people. I can’t give it up on my own. I hope you understand that.”_

_“Of course, I do. Get the knife.”_

_“What are you doing?”_

_“Take off a finger.”_

_“Wait, no! What are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?”_

_“I’m doing what I need to do for you to comply.”_

_“Wait! I don’t even know if you actually have Louis. I want proof! I need proof that he is alright an-and alive so I can comply!”_

Alan almost cringed at a muffled cry in the background, obviously Louis Tomlinson and sighed.

_“No! What did you do? Louis? Louis, can you hear me?”_

_“I gave you the proof. You heard him scream. He’s alive. Oh no, no. Don’t cry, little kid! It’s okay. I know it hurts, but I need you to shut it!”_

_“I want to talk to him! Let me talk to him. Privately, not on speaker. Please? Please?”_

_“Fine. I give you fifteen seconds. Talk whatever you want. But if I sense anything suspicious, he’s going to get it worse.”_

_“Louis? Can you hear me?”_

He heard Louis reply with a small, almost inaudible hum.

_“Are you alright?”_

_“No.”_

_“I’m not on speaker, right?”_

_“No.”_

_“Louis, did they ask you anything? Anything about the management? About the band? Or the label’s contracts? Did they ask you anything, Louis?”_

_“No.”_

_“Louis, this is Paul. Do you have any idea where you are? Or who those people are? Anything you know about where they are keeping you?” Paul asked._

_“No. I- I don’t kno-ow anything.” Louis answered, making Paul let out a sigh._

_“Don’t worry, Louis. We’ll get you out of there, alright? I just need you to keep fighting, don’t give up. Okay? They’ll, probably, try to break you but you shouldn’t let them. You’re a strong boy, aren’t you? We are looking for you.”_

_“Get me out of he-here, ple-ease. Plea—“_ Louis’ voice was cut off before the previous person spoke again.

_“Time’s up! You’ve already cost him a finger, Griffiths. Now, he’s got nine remaining and you have nine days to oblige. And if you don’t, then, I’d be happily willing to put him out of his misery on the tenth. Also, stay close to your phone, you could expect another call soon.”_

And, then, the recording stopped. Alan sat silently for a while, trying to process everything he had heard. But why did they even want the whole management? He understood that it, definitely, had something to do with the management. But he didn’t understand what Louis Tomlinson had to do with all this. Id they take him just because he was in One Direction, Modest’s most successful label? But why _him_? Why not one of the other four? Right now, he wasn’t able to understand anything but he could tell Richard Griffiths knew something, for sure.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when his office phone started ringing and he answered it.

“Alan Waters speaking.” He said, putting the phone to his ear.

“Mr. Waters, this is Paul Higgins. We got another call today.”

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis tried to contain his fear as Carter disconnected the call and looked at him. He knew he wasn’t going to get out of this situation if the stakes were so high. He knew Simon Cowell, Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee since long, enough time to know that there was no way they’d give up the whole management even if it meant giving up on One Direction. And the call did make it clear to him that even if they were deciding on giving it up, they needed more time. Carter said it was the fourth day and they had only six more left. What if they don’t make it in time? What would happen to him?

“Well, seems like they aren’t ready yet.” Carter huffed, snapping Louis out of his thoughts. “You better keep wishing they comply soon if you don’t want a bullet through your head.” He added, ruffling Louis’ hair, making him cower away from his touch.

“They won’t give you the whole management.” Louis mumbled, looking up at Carter, who gave him an intrigued look before leaning against the table opposite Louis’ chair.

“What makes you say that?” He asked, cocking up an eyebrow and Louis shook his head, slightly.

“They won’t. I know they won’t.” He said again, looking down at his lap.

“Don’t worry, Tomlinson. Don’t lose your hope. They will as long as we have you alive here. You’re much more worth than you think you are.” Carter said, seeing the boy shake his head again.

“Why are you doing this?” Louis asked, almost inaudibly, looking up a few seconds later. “Why are you doing this?” He asked again, raising his sore voice only a bit, making Carter smirk.

“You really think I’d tell you?” He mocked but Louis seemed unaffected. Carter looked at the boy’s cerulean eyes, trying to decipher his emotion, already having a feeling Louis knew something. “Why don’t we go over it one more time, huh?” He said, picking up the pliers again, making Louis fear again. But this time, he didn’t have any more courage to protest as Carter leant forward, putting the pliers around his left middle finger. “What do you know about the management? Tell me everything or I’ll hurt this finger more than the previous one.”

“I don’t know.” Louis whimpered, his eyes stinging with tears again. “I don’t know anything about the management. We are not told much. Ple—“ Louis screamed in pain as Carter pressed on the finger, letting a tear slip from his eye.

“I know that you know something, Tomlinson. So just spit it out before I force you to and, believe me, you won’t be liking the latter at all.” He said, loosening the tool’s grip on Louis’ finger before looking at his face again.

“I don’t know. We don’t interfere in the management matters. And they don’t tell us anything.” Louis replied, trying to control his cries due to the pain. “I don’t know anything, please.”

“Who controls the management? Who has control over the labels?” Carter asked further making Louis give him a confused look.

“Richard Griffiths a-and Harry Magee. T-They found it. I don’t know anything else.” Louis answered, making Carter sigh again.

“Then why did Richard say he cannot give up the management because he wasn’t the only one who runs it?” He asked, making Louis frown as he tried to think of anything he knew so he could save himself from the situation. But, unfortunately for him, he knew absolutely nothing.

“I don’t know.” He said again, panicking when Carter clenched his jaw, ready to press on the end of the pliers. “M-Maybe because H-Harry also owns. Half of-of i-it?” He rushed out of panic.

“This is about your safety, Louis. Come on. I know you can do better than that. Tell me what you know about the management!” He exclaimed, making Louis flinch at his tone.

“Please believe me! I don’t know anything! I’m just a singer from the band. I only signed to be a part of the management’s label. Not the management itself!” Louis said and Carter sighed heavily.

“You’re not _just_ a singer, Tomlinson. You are a part of One Direction. A record label worth millions, you know that?” He said as he removed the pliers from his finger before wrapping his hand around Louis’ finger, making him tense up again. Louis frowned, not understanding what Carter was doing but whimpered, shaking his bound hands weakly when Carter slowly started bending his finger outward. “I know you signed some contract a few years back, Tomlinson. And I can do anything to get you to tell me what it is!”

Louis shook his head continuously, letting tears run down his face as he tried his best to keep his finger stiff but it didn’t work and he felt the sharp pain slowly shooting from his finger.

“No, I didn’t! I didn’t sign anything! No!” Louis exclaimed in between his desperate and pain-filled sobs.

Eventually, he gave up on pulling his finger free and just cried, squeezing his eyes tighter at the pain. After a few seconds, he heard Carter curse under his breath before his finger was released but Carter had a firm grip on his bound wrists, not allowing him to tend to the pain in his finger, which he knew was probably sprained now. Carter threw the pliers to the ground before roughly grabbing Louis’ jaw and forcing him to look up.

“I know you are hiding something, Aren’t you?” Carter asked but Louis shook his head again, fluttering his splotchy eyes open.

“Why are you doing this?” Louis asked again, his voice cracking due to lack of use. Carter’s smirk grew wider as he patted Louis’ cheek, making him flinch slightly.

“Well, I don’t need much. I just need the money. Someone else needs something more from the deal.” He replied and Louis creased his eyebrows, not understanding what he was saying. He looked at the other three people in the room and the way they carried themselves told him they weren’t the ones who were in control. Carter was, definitely, the authoritative one. Then, who was the someone else he was referring to?

“What do you mean?” Louis asked again and Carter shrugged.

“I mean that you are going to be here for a long time until the management complies. So, make yourself comfortable.” He said, reaching to tie the cloth back around Louis’ mouth but he jerked his head away.

“Just let me go.” He said, making all four of them laugh at him and his mind seemed to grow angry at that. “If money is all you want then I can give it to you! Just let me go and I promise I won’t tell anyone about this! You can take all my money. Please, let me go!” He pleaded, wiping his face with his hands but the others didn’t seem amused at all.

“Enough talking you’ve done for today.” Carter finally said, grabbing the cloth hanging from his neck and pulling it up but Louis pushed Carter’s hand away using his bound ones, taking him by surprise.

“Let me go. And you’ll never hear from me. Take all the money you want. I’m telling this for your good, just fucking let me go! Modest isn’t the way to get the money you want. I’m telling you, they won’t do anything. They will not give up the whole management by your stupid threats. You’ll only get in trouble because the cops must be looking for me right now! I can give you the money, but please let me g—“ He was interrupted as Carter sighed, annoyingly, and forced the cloth back between his teeth despite his protests. Carter held his hands in place while Gerrard knotted it behind his head.

“Don’t worry, you will be staying here. Believe me, I’m not scared because no one is even looking for you, Tomlinson. People don’t even know you’re gone. Because your management doesn’t want any bad reputation. See how much they care for you? They are probably scared we’ll hurt you more. Although, if they don’t comply in the next six days, I’ll have no problem to set you free from all your problems.” He said, brushing away a stray tear that left Louis’ eye.

Louis closed his eyes, feeling relieved when he saw one of them pick up a syringe and was glad they were going to let him rest despite knowing so many doses could harm his health or possibly kill him. But the oblivion was the only place where nothing seemed to hurt him or remind him of the hell he was being held in. Letting out a muffled cry as the needle stung against the skin on his arm, he gave in to the drug sooner than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't posted in a while but my internet connection was down. So, here's a new chapter. Hope it was worth it!


	7. SIX

“Lou?” Louis heard a soft voice call him and he let out a small groan, not wanting to open his eyes. “Open our eyes, Lou?” He heard it again.

Creasing his eyebrows, he struggled to find his senses. He knew that voice. It was sweet, feminine and _familiar_ to him. He knew it well but couldn’t get his mind to recall who it belonged to. His whole body was numb, he couldn’t feel anything at all except for the throbbing pain in the fingers of his left hand. Whimpering as the pain shot through his hand when he tried to move, Louis strained his mind’s extent again in order to get himself to think.

“Louis?” He heard his name being called again and, this time, he recognised the voice. His eyes shot open and his breath almost hitched upon seeing the source.

“Eleanor.” He tried to say but his words got lost in translation due to the cloth in his mouth.

He shook his head, shutting his eyes once to confirm and he was right. She was right there, sitting in front of him with the same, beautiful smile on her face. If he weren’t tied up then he would have just taken her into his arms, burying his face in her hair until he could forget about all the pain and misery. But he couldn’t. He didn’t even know if she was real or he was just imagining things but just the feeling of seeing her was overwhelming for him.

But he knew it was because of the drug. He was hallucinating all this and didn’t want it right now. Because the feeling only made him want to get out of here more, which he knew wasn’t going to happen soon. So, he closed his eyes again, trying to get her image out of his head but her voice was still echoing in his ears.

“Lou, look at me.” He heard her say again and shook his head slightly without opening his eyes.

 _You’re not real. You’re not real._ He kept saying in his head, convincing himself to snap out of his thoughts but it wasn’t working.

He felt a tear roll down his cheek when he felt her hand against his cheek, gently turning his face until he opened his eyes and looked at her, making a new set of tears cloud his vision as he leant into her touch to feel it. It felt good, _almost_ real. But he knew it wasn’t. And that fact made him sadder.

“You’ll get out of this, Louis. Don’t worry.” She said again and he tried his best to keep looking at her without breaking down again.

 _You’re not real._ He told himself again, still looking at her face. But, now, it wasn’t just her memory anymore. Faces of his family, his bandmates and his friends, everything was flashing in his mind, making his head hurt more. And he hated the feeling. He only wanted it to stop.

“I miss you.” She whispered, this time, with a sad expression on her face and it hurt him, seeing her like that. “I love you, Louis.” She added, making him cry more as he brought his knees closer to his body before burying his head against them as much as his binds allowed.

Her voice was stinging his ears, making it hard for him to remain calm but he tried. Squeezing his eyes tighter, he kept shaking his head, trying to block out the drug’s effects but it wasn’t working. He felt like he was going paranoid, the air suffocating him along with Eleanor’s desperate voice calling him for a response. It felt scary and frightening to him. And he was worried that he was starting to lose his mind to whatever was being injected into him, making him want to sleep again but it wasn’t happening.

 

 

 

\------------------------------------

 

 

 

“Did you call Paul?” Zayn asked, his eyes not leaving the view of the sunset from the balcony. Liam responded with a raspy and low hum, making Zayn sigh. “And I’m guessing he didn’t answer.” He added and Liam mumbled a _yes._

The air surrounding them was a bit hazy with the smoke that was being exhaled by the two of them. Zayn took a long drag from the cigarette before releasing a frustrated breath, eyes tiredly turning to look at Liam.

“I miss him so fucking much.” He mumbled, earning a sad and almost lifeless smile from the younger boy.

Silence followed for the next few seconds as they aimlessly looked ahead at the horizon that was turning a dark shade of orange and blue.

“What happened yesterday?” Liam finally asked, much to Zayn’s relief as the silence was almost deafening and Louis would usually be the one to lighten up everyone’s mood at times like these. “They called again, right?” Liam asked looking at him and Zayn slightly nodded. “So, what happened? What did they say?”

“Paul didn’t let me in.” The older boy replied, letting out another small cloud of smoke from his lips.

“Did he, at least, tell you what happened?” Liam asked again and Zayn shook his head in response.

“No. I kept bugging him for almost an hour but he wouldn’t tell me.” He replied, making Liam let out a sigh before he took a drag from his stick. “He kept telling me to stay out of it. But there was a worried look on his face, Li. Something I haven’t seen much before. There must be something bad happening but the management doesn’t want anyone to know.” Liam nodded, absent-mindedly, before looking back ahead.

“I just hope he’s alright.” Liam mumbled, breaking his trance a few seconds later. “Eleanor called me this morning. She’s wrecked.” He said, sighing while Zayn just closed his eyes, leaning against the wall on his right. “It’s been five days, for fuck’s sake! Why aren’t they doing anything?”

Zayn didn’t reply, probably, because he didn’t know the answer. And, on second thought, he didn’t want to know either. As a part of Modest’s label, he had expected the management to act in order to get Louis out as soon as possible but he didn’t know why they weren’t. Liam, on the other hand, was completely livid and lost about where the whole situation was going. He really wanted to do anything he could to get Louis out of there. Just recalling the horrific cases he had heard about since he was young made him sick and he wished nothing was happening to Louis right now.

Facing his family and friends was what seemed like another ordeal to the four of them because they didn’t know what to say or do. The management had asked them to comfort Louis’ family but how could they when they didn’t know what to do themselves? He remembered the looks on their faces. His mother, his sisters, Eleanor. It was all too much to take for all of them. And the worst part was that none of them could do anything to help. All they could do was just wish and pray and keep doing it until they see Louis again.

Throwing his finished cigarette into the ash tray, Liam took in a long breath as he leaned forward over the railing of the balcony. He wanted to smoke another one to relieve himself off the stress but felt too exhausted to go over it again. Zayn shifted his attention back to Liam before putting out his own cigarette and joining him to lean over the cool metal.

“Where’s Harry?” He asked, trying to change the mood but it didn’t work.

“With Lou’s family. T-They flew in yesterday morning and they’re staying at Louis’ flat.” Liam answered without looking at Zayn.

“And Niall?” He asked again, making Liam sigh as he took in another breath before speaking.

“He’s not stepping out of his flat. Blaming himself for not going after Louis that night.” He replied and the two of them just stared ahead without another word.

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis whimpered, feeling a hand on his shoulder, shaking him slightly and finally looked up from his wrecked state to see three figures above him but couldn’t make out who it was because his vision was still blurry with the tears. He didn’t know what was real anymore and everything just felt like a dream to him. He could hear voices calling him or probably yelling but it all seemed muffled. He closed his eyes again, trying to get the cloudiness out of his eyes but couldn’t.

The cloth around his mouth was untied and he took in a long breath from his mouth before feeling a hand hold his head in place while a wet and warm fabric brushed against his face, making him breathe in relief. Someone kept patting his cheek but he didn’t know how to respond as he slowly started regaining his vision but his hearing remained strained and he almost felt like he wasn’t awake and was still dreaming. Soon, he felt warm water being poured over his head, managing to pull him out of his daze as he finally heard the voices around him clearly. Carter. He could hear him telling something to someone but didn’t strain his mind to pay attention on what was being told.

He regained his vision, a second later, and saw Brad in front of him, making him back away for an instance before he realised that he was trying to wipe away the water that was drenching his hair and face. Once done, he placed his fingers on the nape of Louis’ neck, pressing slightly before looking at Carter.

“He’s fine. There’s no need to worry at all.” He said before picking up another bottle and uncapping it.

Louis started drinking as soon as the bottle was put to his lips, desperately wanting to get rid of the dryness in his throat and sighed in relief once he had consumed a whole bottle, trying to steady his slow breathing. Now that he looked around, he noticed it was Tyler, Brad and Carter he had seen before. But he didn’t want to stay awake anymore. He just wanted to sleep again, feeling extremely drowsy and exhausted. However, he tried to press himself more against the pole behind him upon seeing Carter sit on his heels opposite his bound form, eyeing him with a creepy smugness on his features.

“Come on, now, Tomlinson. Wake up. We’ve got some things to discuss.” He said, patting Louis’ cheek, making him flinch out of instinct. Carter extended his other hand as Brad handed him something— _a file,_ retrieving his hand from Louis’ cheek before flipping through some pages and unclipping a paper from it.

Louis frowned, creasing his eyebrows as he eyed the paper Carter showed him but couldn’t make any sense out of it. It was just white with letters to him. Letters his brain couldn’t comprehend, for some reason.

“You know, I have a feeling you are hiding something from me. You better tell me what it is or you’re going to find yourself in hell of a trouble. Wouldn’t want that now, I’m guessing, hm? Wouldn’t want that pretty face of yours changing, right?” He quipped, making Louis’ insides shiver with fear.

What could he even do to make this man believe he wasn’t lying? That he didn’t know anything?

“Tell me!” Carter yelled, leaning forward and grabbing Louis’ collar, dragging him forward against the ropes that stung his skin making him wince as he tried to remain calm.

“I don’t know anything! Please, I really don’t know what you want!” Louis exclaimed, whimpering under Carter’s grip, making him sigh in anger.

“You are supposed to remain as a band for how many years?” Carter asked, making Louis try to think hard again.

How could he forget? He knew it all this time! Four? No, no .. six! Or was it five? He shook his head, closing his eyes and thinking again but that act only made Carter reel more. Louis gasped feeling a sharp pain on his face, his nose to be precise, letting out a weak cry as his head snapped to the side and he tried to cower himself away from Carter.

“Do better than that, Louis. Tell me.” Carter coaxed again.

“S-Six?” Louis whispered but it seemed more like a question than an answer.

“Is that an answer or are you asking me?” Carter said and Louis flinched at his loud tone that made his head pound.

“Six. I-It was si-ix.” Louis slurred, feeling tired and dizzy again now that the pain in his nose started stinging him.

“Good. Why can’t you just answer everything like that, huh?” Carter quipped, still having a firm grip on the smaller boy’s collar.

He frowned, seeing Louis struggling to keep his eyes open again and dropped his collar before he went over, picking up another bottle and removing its cap. Crouching down again, he poured the warm liquid over Louis’ face, making him shake his head continuously as he tried to move away, gasping for air. Carter threw the bottle aside before grabbing Louis’ face again and patting his cheek.

“Don’t you dare sleep or I’ll make sure you regret it.” He threatened, seeing Louis finally keep his eyes open, still looking down as he tried to breathe in as much as he could.

“I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything.” Louis said again, crying as he let tears slip from his eyes.

“What are you and your bandmates going to do once those six years are done?” Carter asked, ignoring Louis’ shivers and cries.

“I-I .. don’t know. We-we didn’t think ab-about it.” Louis said in between his weak sobs as he looked up at the man sitting opposite him, noticing the unconvinced look on his face, making him gulp. “Wh-what do yo-ou want f-from me? What d-did I ever do to you?” Louis yelled as much as his weak voice would allow, making Carter let out a chuckle, surprising Louis.

“You look so pathetic in this situation, Tomlinson.” Carter quipped, reaching his hand for Louis’ face again but he jerked it away in anger. “If I weren’t the cold and heartless person I am, then, I would’ve pitied you. _Almost._ ” He said, seeing Louis’ weak and dainty form in front of him before his hand went up to grab Louis’ throat, squeezing it slightly as he saw Louis writhe under his grip, trying to get rid of it. “But since I am that cold and heartless, why don’t you tell me what you know so both us can save ourselves some time and energy?” He asked, loosening the grip to allow Louis to breathe again but fingers still ready to press again as he looked up at Carter with teary eyes.

“What do you want?” Louis asked again, giving up and going still against Carter, making the other one frown.

“The contract, Louis. Your contract. I know you have something to do with the management labels. So be a nice little boy and tell me what it is so I can spare you the pain I will inflict upon you otherwise.” He said and Louis tried thinking again but he found it difficult to dig deeper into his thoughts.

“I don’t have anything with the management. Believe me. What fucking contract would I sign?” He exclaimed, making Carter clench his jaw before he felt him punch him, hitting his nose again and Louis whimpered at the stinging pain as he felt a trickle of warm liquid on his damp skin. He wished it was just water but he knew it wasn’t.

“Your management isn’t giving in to our demand because they don’t have full control over the fucking labels!” Carter said, grabbing Louis’ collar again and pulling his distressed face close to his. “And I suspect it has something to do with you!” He added, making Louis frown again.

What would it have to do with him? It wasn’t making any sense to him at all and he slightly shook his head, meeting Carter’s malicious eyes again.

“No.” He whispered. “Wh-why would it h-have to do somet-thing wi-th me? I .. no!” He said, squeezing his eyes and blocking out all the pain to think again. “Why .. di-did you take me?” He asked, opening his eyes a few seconds later.

“What do you mean?” Carter asked back.

“Why .. me? If y-you had so-someth-ing with the manageme-ent, then why .. just me? Why n-not any ot-ther singers who are with M-Modest?” He managed to ask, making Carter look back at him in confusion, as if even he didn’t know the answer.

And that confused Louis more. It confirmed to him that Carter probably wasn’t the one in-charge. There was someone else. But the thought that he didn’t know who it was scared him. Carter didn’t say anything else as he released his grip on Louis and stood back up.

“Why?” Louis asked, louder this time, but he was met with no response as he followed Carter with his eyes, seeing him pick up the cloth he had been gagged with.

Louis tried to convince him otherwise but Carter tied the cloth around his head, leaving him in forced silence again. Louis looked down in defeat, now trying to calm his breathing and mind again and diverting it against all the pain. He heard the door open and close once before Brad leant down, using the wet cloth to wipe the blood from Louis’ nose, making him whimper at the sting. After he was done, even he left the place, leaving Louis in darkness and pain once more.


	8. SEVEN

Louis sat in the darkness for what seemed like a lot of hours to him and he felt suffocated. His breathing rather slow, throat dry and parched while eyes still felt heavy. He wanted to sleep but the constant feeling of nausea wasn’t allowing him to while the cloth used to gag him made it worse as it kept itching the back of his throat, making him cough occasionally. So, he forced himself to hold it in until someone came and untied him.

He moved a bit, shifting in his position to get the least bit comfortable but only ended up whimpering as his hurt fingers brushed against the pole he was tied to. There was no way he could see how bad the damage was but he knew at least one of his fingers was sprained and it would probably get worse if it weren’t tended to soon, moreover because he had been forced to keep them in the same place with his fingers almost crushed between his back and the metal pole. Adding to his discomfort, several parts in his body had developed cramps along with the constant painful sting in his nose.

He hadn’t opened his eyes since long, since the time he had closed them a few hours back. And even if he couldn’t sleep, he didn’t want to open them because he was scared of the things he was imagining and didn’t want to be overcome by emotions and paranoia again. But there were still voices in his head. They kept echoing, whispering, yelling at times and he hated it. He wanted to just cover his ears, curl into himself and scream until his throat burned but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do anything except just sit there for however long he was going to be here.

His skin was unpleasantly clammy and he felt unclean. Of course, he was unclean. He was in the same clothes, wasn’t allowed to use a toilet and hadn’t showered in almost a week .. or was it more? He had completely lost track of time and it scared him more. Because, to him, losing track of time meant that he had been stuck in here long enough to forget any hope of a rescue. He could give anything to hear someone tell him he would be fine and that he would get out of here soon.

His mind went back to what Carter had told him earlier. Nobody was looking for him because the management did not want anyone to know. If that was the case, then Louis just wanted to die at the moment instead of having to suffer anymore and die in his captors’ hands. But he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t even move to at least try and escape so he just gave in to his pathetic situation.

Louis couldn’t understand what these men even wanted from him or the management. Why did they want the whole management? Why do they think he has something to do with the management? Why does Carter always keep asking him about contracts? Did he really sign some bloody contract and forget about it? He had so many questions in his head but, unfortunately, there was nobody to answer them for him.

For thousandth time since the first phone call, Louis tried to think. Think and dig out an answer for anything related to any contract he signed with Modest. But he knew nothing. All he knew was that they probably wouldn’t let him go until either the management complied or he said something about the contract. But how could he when he knew nothing? He kept taking his mind back to when he joined One Direction and agreed to be a part of it yet nothing struck him.

Carter asked him about some contract he signed and whether he had anything to do with the management’s labels. Why would he have anything to do with all that? Maybe, he did. He still remembers how Richard had asked him if they had asked anything about the management and contracts. And after that, Carter did ask him about his association with the management. But then he remembered asking Carter why they chose him and he hadn’t answered. Carter should’ve known, right? But it seemed like he didn’t. Then, who was behind all this? He thought again, trying to think of everything since he was here. But a second later, stopped, giving up as his head hurt a lot. He opened his eyes, looking ahead with a cloudy vision, wanting nothing more than to go home. But there was no way he could help himself.

He tried looking around and somehow try and make sense out of anything around him. But there was nothing that was even close to helping him except for probably empty boxes lying around, away from where he sat. Slowly, he felt his body drain out of energy and he understood what effect the drug they were putting into him was doing but he couldn’t care less. He felt safe and comforted when not awake, because nothing hurt him there, nothing pained him, nothing threatened him, nothing reminded him of hopelessness. And that was all he wanted.

Closing his eyes again, he hit his head against the pole behind him once before letting himself rest again. A few seconds later, one lost thought struck his head and he finally realised it.

_Daniel._

Carter keeps talking about someone named Daniel all the time. He remembered Carter asking Gerrard on the first day if Daniel had called. He spoke something about money .. or payment? _Yes, it was payment!_ Then again, and again. Louis now recalled how Carter would mention Daniel a lot of times. A few actually, but it was enough number of times to understand, whoever Daniel was, definitely had something to do with everything.

Louis shut his eyes, trying to block out everything else to think and recall if he knew anyone with the name Daniel. From the band’s associations, from Modest, from X Factor, from his life before limelight. But nothing came to him. He didn’t know anyone who could do this. And, again, gave up thinking because his head was pounding and the voices he was hearing made it worse as he tried to block them out and just sleep again because he knew that even if he could figure everything out, he won’t be able to do anything. He had nothing to contact Paul or anyone he knew and neither would convincing work with these people since they definitely had made up their mind about not letting him go.

 

 

 

\------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Alan sighed heavily once having listened to the call recording Paul had brought to his office again. Paul eyed Alan’s features as he remained silent, staring at the recorder lying on the table in front of him.

“Um, this is really confusing for us, Alan. I mean, they threaten the management to give up everything or they’re going to kill Louis, which means One Direction could be at stake. It’s a loss for Modest either way. We just don’t understand why they’re even doing all this.” Paul said, breaking the silence that lingered in the room.

Alan didn’t reply for another few seconds before finally looking at Paul and speaking.

“I heard the recording of the previous call, too and had one question. Uh .. what does Tomlinson have to do with all this?” He asked, making Paul frown.

“What does he have to do with all this? Nothing. He’s just a part of Modest and .. part of the biggest label so th—“

“No. There’s more to this than we think, Paul. Why do you think they chose Louis Tomlinson only? Why not any of the other four?” He asked and Paul gave him a confused look.

“Maybe it was a random choice.” Paul mumbled after a few seconds of thinking, making Alan slightly shake his head.

“If you’ve paid attention to the call, the man clearly states that Tomlinson has a lot to do with everything. There must have been a reason, Paul.” Alan said.

“What are you trying to say?” Paul asked, confusedly, shifting in his chair as he eyed the man in front of him.

“This may sound weird but just think about it from their point of view. Even if Louis would have been a random choice, then why did they take him when he was at the club? Wouldn’t it have been easier to take Niall? He was drunk and completely out of his head. Won’t it be easier to handle someone who is out of his senses than someone who can actually put up a fight?” He asked and Paul seemed to understand what he was trying to say as he nodded before looking at him again. “I want you to tell me anything you know about Tomlinson’s connection with Modest.”

“As far as I know, he signed to be in One Direction. That’s it. He doesn’t have anything else to do with Modest.” Paul replied, making Alan sigh.

“Think again, Paul. There must be something. Something we are missing.” Alan said, making Paul scrunch his eyebrows as he tried to think again. “Any other contract he had signed or his relation or association with anyone from the management? Anything.”

“I-I’m just a bodyguard. I don’t know much about the management.” Paul finally replied and Alan nodded in understanding.

“Can I talk to someone from the management then? Richard Griffiths? Harry Magee? Simon Cowell? Or Tomlinson’s bandmates? Anyone.” Alan asked and Paul nodded.

“I can arrange for that.”

 

 

 

\----------------------------------------

 

 

 

Lifting his hand up, Harry rang the doorbell and waited for the door to open while he leaned against the wall beside it. It was after a lot of seconds that the door slowly opened and Harry turned to see Niall standing behind it with a tiresome and splotchy face.

“What do you want?” He asked in a small voice, making Harry sigh awkwardly as he nudged Niall aside before walking in and closing the door.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked, turning to face Niall again.

“I don’t want to talk to anyone.” He mumbled as he went over to go back and curl in his bed again. But Harry stopped him with a hand on his shoulder before pulling the shorter boy in for a hug and he finally gave in, placing his head on Harry’s shoulder before letting himself cry.

“He’ll be fine, Niall. Don’t cry.” Harry mumbled, rubbing his hand on Niall’s back in an attempt to calm him down. “Please.” He added but nothing was helping Niall.

“They are hurting him.” Niall mumbles, his voice muffled by the fabric of Harry’s shirt. Harry didn’t reply as he let Niall cry until he calmed down which took a lot of time just standing there. But when Niall finally was done, he pulled away as Harry made him sit on the couch before he went to get some water from the kitchen.

He returned with a glass of water, giving it to Niall, who drank it before looking up at Harry as if he intended to share something. Or ask, maybe.

“Did t-they find anything else?” Niall asked, a few seconds later, making Harry sigh as he shook his head.

“No.” He replied, lowly, looking down at his feet. “They called again just to know if the management was .. ready but they weren’t. I- I don’t know what the demand was bu—“

“I know.” Niall interrupted him, making Harry look up at the blonde boy.

“What?” Harry exclaimed and Niall nodded.

“I do. I heard the first call. I- I thought Zayn told you.” Niall mumbled, placing the glass back on the coffee table.

“I was busy with Lou’s family. Wh-What did they say?” Harry asked him and Niall let out a small sigh.

“It has something to do with the management.” Niall said. “Those people asked them to give up all deals and labels of Modest or- or they s-said they’d kill Louis.” He continued, his voice cracking towards the end.

Harry reached for his shoulder, squeezing it slightly for comfort. He took a moment to contemplate what Niall said before speaking again.

“Niall, what did they say? Tell me what they said. Everything.” Harry asked and Niall nodded but didn’t look up from the carpet.

“I th-think they have something with Modest a-and Louis. I—“

“No.” Harry said, making Niall stop speaking and look up at him. “I-It has nothing to do with Louis. That’s what Paul told us, right? T-They just took him because he was in One Direction. Modest’s biggest label. It could’ve easily been any of u—“

“No, Harry. I heard the call. The whole thing. The m-man said Louis had something to do with all this.” He told Harry, confusing him a bit.

“Did you talk to Louis?”

“No. I heard the recording. B-But Richard and Paul spoke to him.”

“What did he say?” Harry asked

“He didn’t say much, he k-kinda sounded scared an-and in pain.” He said, closing his eyes to get the horrific memory out of his head before continuing. “But Richard asked him if they asked Louis anything about the management and contracts. I- I think it has something to do with some deals or contracts we signed.”

Harry remained silent, trying to take in what Niall was saying. Deals? Contracts? What did they sign? What did Louis sign? Did they have anything against One Direction?

“Harry?” Niall called and Harry responded with a soft hum. “Did Louis sign anything? Or did we sign anything that could’ve gotten Louis in trouble?” He asked, making Harry frown as he kept thinking.

He couldn’t understand what Louis even had to do with anything like that at all. As far as he knew, Louis was only a simple, outgoing and loud person and he knew he liked staying miles away from anything like this. Then, what was the reason? Although, he didn’t trust Niall completely. He must be over-thinking stuff and reacting excessively towards this. They might have taken Louis as a random choice. It could’ve been any of them.

But, again, there were chances that Niall could be right. What if Louis had something to do with all of this? What if there was some reason they chose him? But he didn’t want to think about all that because, that way, he’d know Louis would be in more danger than he thought. And he didn’t want that to happen. He just wished Louis was safe and alright. He wished he wasn’t hurt. He wished he wasn’t— _No! No, he’s fine! Shut up!_ He told himself as he thought of Louis’ face. His ever-smiling and happy face. And he couldn’t imagine what Louis must be going through right now. One thing he knew, for sure, was that he had to talk to someone about this whole thing. They had to sort it out because, no matter how much he convinced himself, he knew Niall could be right.


	9. EIGHT

Finally, out of the drug’s influence, Louis started to try and get out of the ropes that were tying him. He didn’t care if any of the four men walked in on him trying to escape or if they were guarding the door because all he wanted was to get himself out of this situation, otherwise he’d probably end up dead. He felt the rope painfully cutting into his skin but he couldn’t care less. He kept pulling at them and trying to reach the knots using his right hand. And after almost a lot of minutes, Louis sighed in relief as he managed to find a knot.

He stilled for a moment, breathing out in exhaustion and tiredness before going back to freeing himself. It took him another few minutes to finally get the knots undone from his wrists and felt the rope loosen, giving his wrists some slack. Not taking any chance, he let the rope stay around his wrists as he tried to work on the rope that was wound around his torso, pinning him to the pole. A few more minutes of the tiresome process and he couldn’t believe he was free of the ropes.

Resting his head back against the pole, Louis stared at the small door opposite him, straining his ears to listen for any kind of commotion. When he was sure there was no one, he pulled his wrists out of the rope before removing the ones around him. As soon as he was free, he untied the cloth around his mouth and bent over to the side, throwing up whatever little water and food was left in him. He wiped his face, getting rid of his blurry vision as he felt sick and weak again.

Leaning against the pole again, he worked on untying his ankles before throwing the ropes aside and letting himself breathe for a moment. Raising his good hand to grip the pole, he tried to get himself onto his feet but his body felt too weak and he kept faltering. But after a few attempts, he managed to stand up, still leaning against the pole. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment and humiliation as a warm liquid travelled down his already soaked jeans. Shaking all emotions away, he looked around for something to defend himself if someone saw him.

Using all the energy he had in his body, he tried to get himself to the boxes that were stacked a few steps away. With faltering steps and continuous tripping, Louis finally managed to reach the dusty boxes. He rummaged through the boxes he could reach with his trembling hands but found them empty or filled with Styrofoam, bubble wraps and bits of papers. Now growing frantic, Louis shuffled through them, hurriedly, shoving the checked boxes aside before letting out a frustrated sigh as he fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands and calming himself.

Then, he decided to just go for the door and got onto his feet, using a stack of boxes as his support. But in his attempt to get up, he knocked over a few boxes and his eyes almost lit up upon seeing a box cutter lying amid the dust between all the boxes. Hope sprang inside his head as he crawled over, picking it up in his right hand and examining it. It was small but sharp and he could use it, hopefully. With that, he got himself onto his feet again and made his way towards the door with a scared mind and a racing heart. He clutched the cutter tighter before grabbing the doorknob with his other hand, carefully twisting it without putting any pressure on his damaged fingers.

“Fuck.” He cursed under his breath, realizing it was locked.

Was it always locked? Did they always unlock it before they entered? Sighing in defeat, Louis knew he had no other choice now. Unless, he could wait and try to take them down when they come. But he knew he stood no chance against the four of them. Maybe, he could fight one, or two at most but four wasn’t even a question. And his weak and pathetic state right now was a far cry from the usual person he was.

So, he just leant his back against the wall beside the door, closing his eyes as he steadied his breathing and waited for someone to come. He occupied himself in thinking of an idea as he gripped the cutter tighter, holding it in his hand and he realised how much he was shivering. But, this time, it wasn’t the cold. He knew it. It wasn’t the cold, it was something else. And he didn’t know what. Opening his eyes, he looked down at his shaking hands, feeling his legs give in as he crouched down to the ground. He knew it was high time he had to go home before he’d give up and lose all hope left in him.

He gripped the cutter with white knuckles, his hands covering his ears as he tried to stop the shivering in his whole body. It was involuntary and he couldn’t help it. The voices started screaming in his head again, making him feel sick in the gut and he was scared of losing his mind for almost a hundredth time in the past few days. Lifting his head, he looked at the cutter in his hand, swallowing as he felt more than tempted to use it.

 _No, no, no! You can’t lose hope! No!_ He kept telling himself but nothing worked. He looked at the blade in his hand, almost as if its sharp edge was calling him. Gripping it even tighter, he brought it close to his wrist and closed his eyes, pressing it slightly against his skin.

 _No!_ A voice yelled, making him jump and snap out of his daze. He looked around but there was no one. Of course, it was the same voice from his head. Looking down, almost surprised at the cutter, he threw it away from him before pulling his knees to his chest, curling into a ball and crying for all he was worth, covering his ears as he buried his head between his knees.

 

 

 

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Alan saw Paul motion at him to get in and he obliged, entering the air-conditioned cabin to find four-fifths of One Direction sitting in their respective chairs in utter silence with distressed faces.

“Uh, boys, this is Alan Waters. He is the one who is looking into the case’s investigation,” Paul said, introducing him before taking a seat beside Alan as the four of them greeted back with mere smiles.

“I wanted to talk to the four of you about Tomlinson and his associations with Modest, that is, if you know of any,” Alan explained, seeing the four of them frown at his words.

“What do you mean by associations with Modest?” Liam asked, leaning forward in his chair, seeming confused but intrigued in the conversation.

“I mean, we suspect that either all of you or just Tomlinson had some deeper ties with the management that could have gotten him in trouble with those people. So, I just wanted to ask if any of you know anything,” Alan answered as Harry and Liam exchanged a glance while Zayn and Niall seemed confused at the revelation.

“What deeper ties?” Harry asked, confusedly and Alan sighed before continuing.

“Whatever those men have to do is against the contracts and deals of Modest Management. And since One Direction is a huge and significant part of it, there could be some connection those men have with your band,” Alan explained, making the boys nod in understanding. “So, I’d really appreciate it if you let me know about anything you have knowledge of regarding all this.”

“I .. I don’t think Louis h-has something with Modest. As far as I know, he is only a part of One Direction, just like all of us,” Liam answered, glancing at the other three who nodded in agreement.

“Are you sure, Mr. Payne?” Alan asked again. “Look, this is a serious matter and I need you four to think of anything you know. Because we cannot afford to have any misses or slips. It’s Louis Tomlinson’s life, we’re talking about. Just take some time and try to recall anything you know. There must be something because the man who called clearly said that Tomlinson had a lot to do with everything.”

“I knew it was something about the management,” Niall mumbled, making all eyes turn to him. “I- I knew it. On the c-call, Richard was a-asking Louis if .. if they asked anything about Modest and contracts and .. labels. There should be something the management is hiding. There should be something!”

“Mr. Waters, we really do not recall us or Louis signing any contracts with Modest other than to be in One Direction,” Harry said, speaking after a few seconds of silence from everyone. “But, like Niall suggested, I- I do think Modest is trying to hide something, too. Unfortunately, we’re just singers signed with the company so we aren’t really informed or aware of matters inside the office. That is all we can tell you right now but we will make sure to call you as soon as we get to know something.”

Alan sighed, heavily, resting his face in his hand before looking up at the four of them again. He noticed how Malik was silent but didn’t want to make a fuss out of it. Could he really blame him? It must be really hard to know one of close friends is somewhere suffering and going through hell.

“What about Tomlinson’s family? Do you think they would know something?” Alan asked a few seconds later and Liam frowned, not having thought about it before.

“They might know,” Liam replied. “Louis shares everything with his mum.”

Harry and Niall nodded in realization as Alan’s hope sprang up once again.

“Do you think any of you could try and talk to them?” He asked, glancing between the four boys.

“Of course,” Harry mumbled. “We will. They’re staying at his flat in the city. I- I could talk to them.”

“That’d be really helpful.” Alan said, standing up from his chair as he shoved a hand into his coat pocket. “Here’s my card. Call me once you talk to them or if any of you have something to share. Feel free.” He placed his visiting card on the table and Liam nodded, taking it before everyone stood up.

Paul gave Alan a nod, implying him to follow him outside as Alan smiled at the four of them before heading out with the band’s bodyguard.

“Where do you think it’s going?” Paul asked, eyes still fixed at the corridor ahead of him.

“If you haven’t guessed it yet, I have no idea,” Alan replied, feeling disappointed with himself for making absolutely no progress after this much time.

The two of them walked in silence, down the corridors of the studio as if they wanted nothing but to get out of there. Alan kept adjusting his neck-tie, feeling suffocated at the tension in his throat. He knew, he had realised that Modest was hiding something but there was no way he could get them to open up. After the way Paul had described them, he knew they wouldn’t give up secrets and confidential matters so soon and he couldn’t understand what to do to sort it out and get the poor boy out of there.

“Mr. Waters?” He heard a voice call and both of them stopped in their tracks, turning back to see Zayn Malik approach them in a hurry.

Alan and Paul exchanged a confused look as the raven-haired boy approached them and eyed Paul.

“I .. I need to talk t-to Mr. Waters,” He said, making the two of them nod at him to continue. “Alone.” Paul looked hesitant for a second, looking at Zayn’s pleading face. “Please,” Zayn added and Paul nodded.

“I’ll be at the reception,” He told Alan, who nodded before leaving.

Alan crossed his arms over his chest, curiously waiting for Zayn to speak but saw him nervously glancing around at the other bodyguards and managers roaming around. Zayn bit his upper lip before speaking.

“Mind if we talk somewhere more private?” He asked, nervously, making Alan nod as he followed Zayn, who was leading him towards the backdoor.

Alan was growing curious with every passing second because he had seen it in Zayn’s eyes. He had seen that Zayn, probably, knew something. Something no one is supposed to know. And, now, he understood why he had been silent earlier. Zayn opened a door, leading them to the backyard as they stepped out and Zayn closed the door behind them.

Once there, Alan turned to face the Bradford boy, who seemed hesitant to speak again. He parted his lips but closed them just as soon, unable to find the words to tell Alan Waters what he knew.

“Yes, Mr. Malik? What do you know?” Alan asked, trying to make him the least bit comfortable to talk.

“I don’t know if this will help but .. in our initial period as a band, the first two years actually, Louis was .. really insecure about his involvement in One Direction,” Zayn said, making Alan scrunch his eyebrows as he now seemed intrigued as to what this had to do with everything. “H-He used to feel really bad about … about not having any solos in X-Factor an-and almost all of the first album. He f-felt uncomfortable at how the managers and agents disliked his outgoing and loud personality. And .. he was asked to speak less in interviews and shows,” Zayn shoved his hands in the pocket of his jeans before looking up at Alan.

“And how do you think it’s connected to the whole kidnappi—“

“I haven’t finished yet,” Zayn interrupted and Alan sighed, nodding at him to continue. “He once told me about all t-this and I .. didn’t know how to comfort him. So, when he asked me what he could do to get over it or sort it out, I … I told him he could try talking to someone from the management, like Simon Cowell or Richard Griffiths about his role in the band,” Zayn stopped, looking down and sighing.

“And .. what did he do after that?” Alan asked, trying to figure out the expression on Zayn’s face but only saw him shake his head, slightly.

“As far as I know, he- he spoke to Simon Cowell about it a-and had a couple of meetings with Modest. But he never told me what happened after. And whenever I’d ask him, he’d say they haven’t done anything yet. He did become slightly confident after that but I don’t know if he signed any contract or not,” Zayn concluded, leaving Alan hanging with the vague revelation. Can all this really have something to do with those men and Tomlinson’s kidnapping? “But, Mr. Waters, I requested to speak to you in private because no one should know about this. Nobody knows what happened at those meetings and Louis said he’d like to keep it that way. He doesn’t want the boys to know because he thinks they’d blame themselves and … he doesn’t want people to think that he’s in the band because of Modest.”

“I understand, Mr. Malik, but I’m still wondering if this has any connection with the case. But, since you’ve let me know .. I’ll talk to the management about it and try to figure it out. Thank you for sharing it, Mr. Malik,” Alan said, seeing the boy’s eyes start glistening with tears.

“Just get him out of there, Mr. Waters. Please,” He whispered, wiping his face to hide his weakness while Alan nodded reassuringly, gently squeezing his shoulder.


	10. NINE

She kept her gaze trained at the citylights ahead of her as a cool breeze swayed through the balcony. She heard the door open and closed but didn’t bother to look who it was, too busy trying to distract herself with the view. But the person cleared their voice and she recognised it.

“Hey,” Liam mumbled, joining her at the railing before turning to look at her. She only nodded, slightly, in response finally breaking her trance and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Nothing,” She replied, looking down at her fingers intertwined with each other. Liam noticed the sadness in her voice, the way her fingers started to fiddle with the sleeves of the oversized green Adidas jumper she was wearing, which he remembered belonged to Louis. “Any progress?” She, finally, asked and sighed when Liam didn’t answer for a few seconds.

“Not really,” He murmured once the silence became suffocating. “Mr. Waters is … working on the case and he said it could have something to do with Louis and his connection with Modest.” She turned to give him a confused look after he spoke.

“What connection?” She asked, her voice hoarse from crying so much.

Liam shrugged, turning to look into her, now sad and almost lifeless brown eyes which seemed to have been drained out of their light. He couldn’t imagine how much she must be missing Louis. After all, he, probably, wouldn’t even be able to cope up with anything if he gets to know Sophia was in the same situation as Louis, or anyone close to him in that matter.

“Um, whoever’s involved has something against the management. But Mr. Waters thinks there might have been a reason they took Louis,” Liam replied before letting out a sigh, seeing Eleanor frown.

“What do you mean?” She questioned again, more confused now. “What do you mean there’s a reason they took Lou?”

Liam couldn’t find the words to explain the situation. For all he knew, he could end up confusing her even more. But she deserved to know. She really did. And he knew he had to find a way to tell her. Or ask her if she knew something. Swallowing thickly, he looked at her again before speaking again.

“There is a possibility that either the contracts that we signed or .. Louis signed could have been the reason behind the whole thing,” He replied, making her frown in confusion.

“What did he sign?” She asked, now completely turning to face him.

“We don’t know,” He replied, sighing once finished. “We don’t even know if it’s something he signed or all of us.”

“What did the management say about it?” Liam didn’t know the answer, honestly and hesitated to speak again.

“I- I don’t really know. I haven’t been in contact with … Paul for updates or anything,” He replied while she just hummed in response, going back to fiddling with her fingers.

“He isn’t answering my calls,” She told him after a heartbeat of silence. “His family is really worried.”

“I know. Harry told us,” Liam said, his voice low as he stuffed his hands into his pocket, unable to take the tension everyone’s been facing since the day they got to know about Louis’ disappearance. “Listen, uh, do you know anything about Louis’ connection with Modest?” He asked, making her give him another confused look.

“Connection? He is a part of One Direction, wha-what else could there be?” She said, making Liam nod slightly.

“There could be something else. You don’t remember him going for meetings or anything with Modest, do you?” He asked her again and she scrunched her eyebrows, trying to think. And that gave Liam a little hope that she might know something and a small smile formed on his lips.

“I- I don’t really know but … I think h-he did have meetings with Modest,” Eleanor replied, making Liam let out a relieved breath as he looked back at her.

“And .. do you know what it was? Any idea?” He asked, hopefully, looking at her as he bit his lip in curiosity.

“No,” She finally replied a few seconds later and he sighed, looking down at his feet.

“Think again, Eleanor. There must be something he might have told you but you forgot. Please,” Liam said, looking back up. “For Louis,” He added, making her look away for a from him.

“I-I’ll try to think,” She mumbled and when she looked back again, he noticed her moist, brown eyes.

“He’ll be fine,” He muttered, pulling her into a warm, brotherly embrace and she finally gave in to her weakness.

“I … I didn’t call him that day,” She mumbled. “I call him everyday. Every morning. But I didn’t and .. I couldn’t talk to him.”

Liam couldn’t think of anything to comfort her since he himself needed some comforting. He knew he couldn’t lie to her, that way both of them would know it’s a lie. But, at the same time, false hopes and reassurances was all they had to keep themselves from completely losing hopes of getting Louis back.

 

 

 

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Alan Waters rummaged through the files stacked in the office, trying to find some or the other person in the criminal records who could have a connection with either Modest management or Louis Tomlinson. But as far as he had searched, he hadn’t found anyone. Yet. But he knew there had to be something.

Whoever is behind this should be someone big, smart enough to pull off a stunt like this. And Alan knew he had to do something soon. After all, they had less than four days left and if they couldn’t get Tomlinson out, then a lot would be at stake. With a frustrated mind, he threw scanned files aside, picking up new ones from the boxes lying on the table. Hurriedly flipping through the pages, his eyes scanned for anything that spelled Modest or Louis Tomlinson, but nothing caught his eye.

Alan sighed heavily, throwing another file aside before looking at the last box. He knew that if there was something, it should be in there. But what if it isn’t there? What would he do? Biting his lip, he picked up the cutter and sliced the tape on the box before opening it. There were almost a hundred files in there. He was tired already, but he knew he had to do it. He had to find something. Anything.

One by one, he started flipping through the files and papers again, finding nothing useful until half of the box was checked. Rubbing a hand over his face, he picked up another file, flipping it open. He saw names, a lot of them. Criminals. Murderers. Thiefs. Gangsters. Serial Killers. Kidnappers. But none of them seemed to have even the least bit of connection with the case. Clenching his teeth again, he threw the file aside before picking up the next one but this time one name on the second page caught his eye.

_Daniel Ferguson._

Alan frowned, unclipping the page and placing the file on the table before going over the paper in his hand. The name seemed familiar, he had heard it somewhere before. But couldn’t remember where. Probably, in some case he might have dealt with. Shaking his head, he put the paper back into the file. After all, what would some random name have to with the case? There was not even a single mention of Modest or Louis Tomlinson in there, associated with him.

Scratching his forehead, he started going through the other files when the phone started ringing. He answered it, putting the receiver to his ear as he flipped the pages.

“Yes? Alan Waters speaking,” He mumbled, his eyes carefully reading every letter on the page.

“Alan, it’s Paul.” Came the voice from the other side of the line.

“Yes, Paul. What is it?” He asked, not shifting his eyes from the file in his hand.

“Eleanor Calder said she wanted to speak to you. Would you mind?” Paul asked, making Alan wonder if she knew something and wanted to share it.

“Of course. Um, she can visit me any time,” He replied.

“Okay. Thank you,” Paul mumbled.

“Paul? I’d actually like to speak to someone from the management, please,” Alan said, remembering what Malik had told him earlier. Louis could have signed a contract with Modest, there was a possibility. A confidential contract. And he had to find out about it in order to move the case further.

“Okay, I’ll do something,” Paul replied before Alan muttered a _thanks_ and hung up.

 

 

 

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With each passing minute, Louis’ shivering worsened, making him curl into himself more and more. He couldn’t get himself to stop it. Neither could he help the tears that kept streaming down his face. He wanted his body to listen to him but it wasn’t. And he finally understood what was wrong.

He needed the drug. Whatever they were giving him was having this effect. And the only way to stop it was by taking it again. He once remembered Zayn telling him what effects drugs had on people. But he didn’t want himself to be like that. And his mind was still conflicted upon the decision.

He, desperately, clawed at his skin as he buried his head deeper between his knees in an attempt to stop the tremors and the stupid, loud voices in his head. He was losing his mind. He knew it. Otherwise, he could’ve gotten himself to think of something for an escape but he wasn’t able to do it.

Although his hearing was strained and muffled, he did hear someone trying to unlock the door. Snapping his head up, Louis turned to the door, feeling his heart beat faster. He had to do something. He can’t let them restrain him again but it seemed like he had no choice. Louis, frantically, looked around with a blurry vision searching for the cutter he had thrown away earlier but couldn’t find it.

 _Shit, shit, shit, shit,_ Louis repeated to himself against the voices as he let his trembling fingers skim along the dusty floor but he couldn’t find it. More tears spilled out of his eyes and he panicked, the voices still continuing. But he didn’t know whether they belonged to the four men or just in his head. He just couldn’t tell them apart anymore.

Within seconds, he felt someone grab his left hand, twisting it behind his back and he whimpered at the painful pressure on his sprained fingers. He was forced to his knees, a strong arm holding him in a chokehold. He heard the person say something but couldn’t decipher it while he only felt miserable for being so stupid and pathetic.

Blinking several times, he noticed a blurry figure in front of him and tried to back away but he actually had no choice. Before he could register anything else, someone had punched him, he whimpered at the sting in his jaw and tasted a little bit of blood in his mouth. Letting out another weak cry, he tried to hunch forward as a foot collided with his gut. The hands restraining him loosened and he moved his hands to aid the pain in his stomach. But before he could recover, he was pulled up again, feeling himself being dragged back towards the pole and finally thrown to the floor.

He heard yelling again, both in his head and around him, and wanted to cover his ears but he was too busy trying to shield himself from the blows that kept coming one after the other. He wished he would just pass out from the pain but it wasn’t happening. Instead, the pain and agony only kept intensifying until he had no more energy to either scream or cry anymore.

After what seemed like eternity to him, but was only a few seconds, everything stopped. The yelling, the pain, the voices. Everything. Everything, except the shivering. But he finally found the time to curl into himself as he cried, choking on his own sobs while finding it hard to breathe. He could hear someone, probably, yell at him again. Rather close to his face, making him whimper but he only curled in more, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his whole body in an attempt to stop trembling but it still wasn’t working.

Carter eyed Louis’ small and fragile frame, concerned with his pitiful state and shivering and realised he shouldn’t have gone this far. Whatever happens, he isn’t supposed to kill him. That’s what he was told so he just gave up, turning to look at Brad and Tyler.

“Make sure he’s alright,” He mumbled before leaving with Gerrard in tow.

Louis flinched upon feeling someone touch his shoulder, expecting pain again but it never came. He kept whispering something, repeatedly, but it was so low that the other two had to strain their ears to listen, so they didn’t. Louis, finally, opened his eyes and saw a retreating figure while another one hovered over him.

He tried to back away but the person forced him to sit up and he gave in due to exhaustion. He had no energy to sit straight and, fortunately, the person allowed him to lean against the pole again. He saw someone else approach and move a hand to his face, dragging the skin below his eye to inspect but he closed his eyes when a light shone, piercing his vision.

Someone tapped his cheek, saying something he couldn’t understand while he only kept crying. The metal behind him didn’t seem cool anymore. Probably, because he was too cold himself but he finally felt someone take his arm, pulling up the sleeve of his jacket and his eyes fluttered open.

“N-No. Ple-ease, no,” He whispered, seeing a blurry white syringe near his arm again before letting out a distressed whimper at the sting.

But, then, he felt good again. Not good, but better. Almost relieving him from all the suffering as he felt the shivers slowly start to die. But he did wish that they’d just kill him already. Because he didn’t want to suffer anymore. He’d better be six-feet-under than in this hell.

He, emptily, looked ahead as he felt them dab a wet cloth against his bruised lip and nose before wiping his tear-streaked, splotchy face. A bottle of water was pressed to his lips and he, gladly, drank it ignoring the fact that the plastic stung against the wound on his lower lip. A second later, he moved his head back, wincing at the pain but felt nauseous again and bent to the side, throwing up all the water he had taken.

He flinched when a hand placed itself on his back, wiping his face again before he was given some more water. He coughed, slowly, looking up again and saw one of them pick up the rope. He shook his head, weakly, trying to back away but the other person held him in place.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” He kept whispering as much as his hoarse voice allowed while his hands were pulled behind his back, making him scream weakly as the person’s hand, accidentally, pressed against his fingers.

It did not take much effort to bind him since he was exhausted and his movements were uncoordinated due to the drug. Seconds after his wrists and ankles were tied, the cloth was pulled between his teeth again, silencing his weak pleas and apologies while they finished with a blindfold over his eyes, cutting off his options completely before making him lay down on the dusty floor. Louis only cried, hearing their footsteps walk away before hearing the sound of the door. He felt distant from everything and just tried to regain his steady breathing because the taut cloth gagging him was making it difficult. Now, with his vision, speech as well as movements restricted, the voices in his head grew louder and he only wished for everything to end soon, soon before he completely loses his sanity.

And, now, he had given up all hopes and he didn’t know if he’d even make it out before either dying off health issues, starvation or a bullet through his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I know I kept you waiting a bit long for this chapter but I was too busy celebrating #8yearsofonedirection yesterday, while today I was busy crying over the fact that they didn't release the Infinity music video.. :( Anyway, hope this chapter was good!


	11. TEN

In his office, Alan Waters, flipped through the files for the thousandth time since the previous day as he went through all the names again. He knew he was missing something. Something his mind might have crossed at but he hadn’t acknowledged it. To him, this felt like the worst case because it had been almost five days since he was approached and he hadn’t made the least bit of progress.

He couldn’t even understand who could even have all the guts to stage something as big as this. Unless, they wanted to get themselves into trouble. Which, again, wasn’t much of a problem to those people since he had no leads on them at all. They were, already, miles behind and didn’t have any idea how to get ahead.

And now, it had been over a week since Louis Tomlinson was kidnapped and they still had no clue where he was. They didn’t even know if he was alive. For all he knew, they could have just killed him by now but still waiting for Modest to comply.

However, if Tomlinson had really signed some contract and if that was the reason they took him, then they could have a lot to do with him. Implying, they probably wouldn’t kill him because there is a possibility he could be an asset. And he never even thought he’d, desperately, wish for the boy to have signed some contract with Modest. Because, as much as he hated to admit it, but that contract would be the only thing that’d keep him alive in the hands of his captors.

He had shortlisted a few names that could, at least, vaguely have a connection with the management or Tomlinson and was going through them again. Flipping through the files once more, he slowly started to get frantic himself. He was almost desperate because they were running out of time. And that meant running out of ways to try and get Louis Tomlinson out of the situation.

Throwing the last file aside, he sighed, rubbing his forehead as he rested his elbows on the table. There had to be something. There always is something in a case that just answers all the questions covering it. But, right now, he wasn’t finding one. And that made him more desperate to talk to the people in Modest. A soft knock on the door caught his attention and he breathed in once.

“Come in,” He said, leaning back in his chair.

He looked up, removing his glasses when the door opened after and placed them on the table. He gave a small smile seeing Paul enter his office along with a brown-haired girl, probably, in her early-twenties. He knew her as Eleanor Calder, Louis Tomlinson’s girlfriend for over two years.

Alan motioned for the two of them to sit down in the chairs opposite his desk as only Eleanor obliged while Paul just shrugged before walking out of the room. And Alan understood that Paul wasn’t supposed to know whatever Eleanor was going to tell him. Once Paul was gone, closing the office door behind him, Alan turned to look at the girl in front of him. It was evident she was sad which reflected in her sad, brown eyes and the small frown set on her face.

“Miss Calder, I—“

“I’ll just make it as soon as possible. Please get him out of there. A-And please don’t tell any of the boys about what I tell you,” She said, lowly, making Alan nod his head asking her to continue.

 

 

 

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_“You’re flying back to London tomorrow?” She asked, buckling her sandal as she looked at him on the other side of the bed, his figure crouched down to tie his shoelace._

_“Yeah,” He mumbled, looking up and smiling at her once finished putting on his shoes._

_“I thought your tour wasn’t ending for another month,” She said, seeing him walk over and knelt down in front of her to finish off the other sandal._

_“You’re right,” He answered, looking up again once done, placing his hands on hers. “Simon called me.”_

_She frowned at his words but he still seemed to have a smile on his face._

_“What happened?” He asked, seeing her expression while she just shrugged._

_“Why did he call you?” She asked back._

_“I don’t know. He said he had to .. tell me something,” Louis replied, seeing her frown again and smiled because he liked the cute expression on her face. “Now, what happened?” He asked her again and she smiled._

_“I was just wondering why he’d call you all of a sudden, in the middle of your tour. I mean, it kinda seems urgent, then.”_

_“Maybe,” He mumbled. “I haven’t told you, have I?”_

_“What?” She asked while he seemed busy thinking whether he did or not. “Louis? Told me what?” She asked again._

_“I think I didn’t,” He muttered, looking back at her. “Man, I actually didn’t tell anyone about it!” He exclaimed, almost as if talking to himself._

_“About what, Lou?”_

_“Okay, so .. um, a few months back, I had a meeting with Modest and I told them about … you know, about my involvement in the band and everything,” He told her, confusing her a bit._

_“Your involvement in the band?” She asked and he nodded in response. “Elaborate,” She said, making him chuckle before he continued._

_“I told them I feel insecure in the band because .. most people think I have a weak voice and I can’t sing. To be honest, I don’t find the confidence when it comes to my voice myself. You know, I didn’t sing a single solo on the X Factor._ _If you actually think about how that feels, standing on stage every single week, thinking, ‘what have I really done to contribute here? Sing a lower harmony that you can’t really hear in the mix?' I was just the kid wearing espadrilles who stood in the back. Forgettable, to a certain degree.” He sighed, looking down at his knees._

_She removed her hands from under his before squeezing them lightly in reassurance. Louis looked up at her, feeling slightly teary-eyed again, making her give him a sad but warm smile._

_“You’re not forgettable. You are important to the band, Louis. You just don’t know it,” She said, placing a hand on his cheek while he moved his hand with hers and held it against his skin. “You have an amazing voice, Louis. I can listen to it all day.”_

_“That’s flattering, El,” He mumbled, smiling, but his smile fell as soon as it appeared. “But sadly, I don’t think it’s true.”_

_“Hey, it is!” She said, again. “You can ask anyone in the band. You’re your sisters’ favourite member,” She added but he just chuckled._

_“That’s because they’re my sisters,” He said, making her roll her eyes at him._

_“You know, people don’t know me as just Eleanor Calder,” She tried again, making him raise up an eyebrow in amusement because he knew what she was going to say next. “They know me as Eleanor Calder, Louis Tomlinson’s girlfriend.” She poked the tip of his nose with her finger, making him chuckle again. “It’s like a tag attached to my name now.”_

_“Aww .. look at you making up all kinds of shit for me,” He mumbled, pulling her face close to his and pressing his lips against hers. “That still doesn’t change the fact, though,” He added, pulling away a few seconds later._

_“Your mum would completely beg to differ,” She remarked, getting up as he followed, getting onto his feet. “Why do you think he called you, then?” She asked, feeling him sling his arm around her shoulder while she put hers around his waist._

_“I don’t know. I guess he has something to say. Like, maybe advice?” He mumbled, shrugging as they left the hotel room._

 

 

 

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Louis whimpered, feeling a sharp pain in his arm and finally opened his eyes, expecting to see darkness due to the blindfold but realised it wasn’t there anymore. He blinked, his vision focussing in and out before he could see clearly again. And then he felt the sting again, looking up, he saw Tyler unwrapping the blood-soaked bandage on his arm and realised he had been untied and wasn’t wearing his jacket anymore.

However, he regretted waking up. Because all he felt was pain. Not only in his arm, but all through his body. He felt exhausted and completely drained out of energy and only wanted to sleep again but he couldn’t.

Having unwrapped the bandage, he saw Tyler clean the wound, making him grit his teeth as he tried to hold himself back from making any sound. He didn’t even move because his mind was screaming at him to just rest, giving up all the energy inside him and lie there until he would pass out again.

Tiredly moving his eyes around, he noticed there were others around too. He could see two in the corner, probably, on the phone while Brad approached Tyler with a bag in his hand. He looked back down, because he didn’t have any more strength to hold his head up, letting it rest against the floor again. He felt cold and sick again, he might have been having a mild fever but he couldn’t understand if it really was fever or just the drug’s effect. But he knew he didn’t feel good.

Closing his eyes, Louis let a few tears spill out of helplessness. All he wanted to do was go home but he didn’t know if that was even going to happen. For the first time in his life, he felt anything less than human. He could give anything to get out of his suffering because he didn’t want to be like this anymore. Having been deprived of much food, movement, speech and bathroom privilege, he felt utterly humiliated with his pathetic self and felt himself losing control over his own body and mind.

A few minutes later, he felt someone make him sit up and realised they had finished bandaging his arm again as he opened his eyes, feeling warm when Tyler put his jacket on before he was pushed back down to the floor. Louis looked up, seeing a boot-clad foot beside him and saw Carter slowly bend down and reach for his face, making him flinch away in fear. Carter dragged Louis’ eyelids up and looked at the boy’s dilated pupils.

“Is he alright?” He asked, moving his hand to Louis’ forehead, feeling a slightly feverish skin compared to the rest of his body.

“He’s fine. Just a mild fever. It’s the drugs, don’t worry. It’s normal,” Someone replied, although, Louis was too tired to even bother to turn his head and see who it was.

“Are you sure? Because Daniel wants him sedated until he’s here,” Carter said again, turning to look at whoever was speaking.

“I’m sure. A few more doses won’t do anything to him,” The same voice said and Louis’ head hurt, so he just closed his eyes, trying to block everything out.

He felt his body slightly start trembling again but didn’t make an effort to even try to stop it. The only thing he could hear was his rapid heartbeat. Everything else seemed a bit muffled. He wanted to vomit again but didn’t even know if there was anything left in him.

Louis flinched again when someone ruffled his hair, making him look up to see Carter, who was holding a gun in his hand. Louis felt sick in his stomach, wondering if this was it, if they were going to kill him now. He was glad he’d be put out of his suffering. But at the same time, he didn’t want to die a death like this. In some place he didn’t know, in a condition he didn’t want to be in, in front of people he didn’t even know. He didn’t want a pitiful and indignant death like this.

He just squeezed his eyes tighter, letting a fresh set of tears down his face as he whimpered, feeling the cold metal against his forehead, shivering more out of fear. He could feel Carter’s angry breath against his cold skin when his hand tapped his cheek, making him try to cower away.

“I know you’re scared, Tomlinson. But don’t worry. As much as I’m tempted to kill and get rid of you, I can’t. Unfortunately, for the both of us.” He heard Carter say and opened his eyes to look up at the man above him, who had the same, smug and creepy smile on his face as he retrieved the weapon from Louis’ head. “See? I told you you’re much more worth than you think.”

Louis couldn’t quite understand what Carter was trying to say, neither the motive behind his words. His mind was blocked from thinking or decision-making and he hated that fact.

“Eager to go home, aren’t you?” Carter asked, interrupting his thoughts and Louis looked up again. “You were lucky I didn’t hurt you more the other day or you would’ve been dead by now,” He added, making Louis want to cry again at the memory. He squirmed, feeling Carter touch the bruise on his nose, whimpering at the dull pain. “You don’t like to listen at all, do you? If only you wouldn’t have tried to pull out the brave stunt you did, you would have been in a better shape now. Don’t you think so?” He asked, almost mockingly and Louis only wanted them to leave him alone again.

Bound or free, he just wanted to be alone. At least, nowhere near these people.

“But don’t worry, don’t lose your hope. Your management still has a whole day to do something. Maybe, by tomorrow, at this time you could finally forget about your hopes if they don’t do anything,” He said, trailing his hand down Louis’ trembling skin before removing a phone. “Now, I need to call your uncle Griffiths so don’t say anything unless I say so. You know the drill otherwise.”


	12. ELEVEN

Alan nervously walked down the Modest office corridors, following Paul as the middle-aged man led him towards the office. He couldn’t concentrate more on the surroundings because his mind was still stuck at what Eleanor Calder had told him earlier.

 _Louis didn’t sign any contract_ , she had said. And that had confused him. But, slowly, he realised the danger Louis Tomlinson was in after she continued what she knew. And now, all he seeked for was answers from the management or anyone who knew anything deeper about Tomlinson’s ties with the management. _He was just a bit too worried about his potential as a solo artist after the band._

 _People could think he signed a contract but no one knows that he actually didn’t. Everyone who know he’s been to a meeting might think that, but that isn’t the truth_ , she told him.

What was the truth? He had asked himself several times in his head but didn’t ask her and, patiently, waited for her to finish.

 _Modest only asked him not to accept any external offers after the band’s six-year contract expires and to just trust them regarding his solo career and future after the band_.

The only thing her words screamed at him was that Modest was hiding something. It proved to him that Simon Cowell, Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee definitely knew something. Something more than they’ve let onto him and the others.

“Mr. Waters,” Richard Griffiths as Alan entered the office before Paul closed the door from outside.

Alan sat down in the chair opposite the desk as he noticed only Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee were present and no one else from the management, security or the band.

“Um, before we start about anything else, can we talk about yesterday’s call?” Harry Magee asked, making Alan frown since he didn’t know about any call received yesterday. He wasn’t informed. And, hearing the way Magee asked, he had a weird feeling in his gut that it might be something bad and wished that it didn’t mean Louis Tomlinson was dead.

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------

 

 

 

“Richard!” Carter exclaimed as soon as the manager of Modest had picked up the call, his rough fingers still running through a trembling Louis’ hair. “What have you decided, then?” He asked, moving his thumb back and forth on the boy’s sweaty forehead.

“Listen, we jus- we cannot give you the whole management. If you’re doing this for money then we can come up with a deal. Is there any way we could negotiate over this?” The concerned man asked but Carter only let out a slight chuckle, looking down at Louis’ small form lying on the floor.

“I don’t think you got the deal clear, Griffiths. It’s either the management or your popstar’s death for me. But it’s totally your choice. I mean, you can choose the latter and I’d have no problem with that.” Louis looked up at Carter, who shrugged at him with mocking sadness before speaking again. “Your management’s going down either way. So, isn’t it better losing a part of it rather than the whole?” He quipped, trailing his hand down to Louis’ throat and wrapping his fingers around it, feeling Louis swallow in fear. “I can kill him right now and grant you some relief from the situation if you want. But then I don’t think you’d like it because I’ll make sure that One Direction will be over when I’m done with Tomlinson. The news about his death and Modest’s inability to save him can spread in a matter of hours if I want, Griffiths. But it’s still your say because you have approximately thirty-six hours to decide before I finish it myself. ”

Louis couldn’t help but let out a choked sob at his words. _Thirty-six hours_. That’s all the time he had. And at the end of it, he’d either get out or .. die. But, at least, it seemed like a short time and he only had to hang on for a few more hours. _It’ll be over soon_ , he told himself but he couldn’t stop his cries, knowing there is a high possibility that he could die.

Carter moved his hand to cover Louis’ mouth, shushing him lowly and the terrified boy flinched as he tried to hold himself together, feeling his trembling increase along with his breathing.

“Look, if management is all you want then I- I think you should know that killing Tomlinson is not the way to get it. He is vital,” Richard, finally, let out after a few seconds of thinking.

“I know he is. Why do you think we took him in the first place?” Carter asked, removing his hand from Louis’ mouth, waiting to see if he tries something. But he didn’t. He just laid there, sniffling and cowering into himself as much as he could.

“No. If you want the management, then, you need him to be alive. Not just alive, but physically and mentally stable. Otherwise, you wouldn’t get it all,” He said, making Carter frown as he kept glowering at the boy. “You hurt him and you’ll lose the deal.”

Even Louis seemed confused as he tried to listen to what Richard was saying because it concerned him, that’s all he could make out until now.

“Mind explaining, Mr. Griffiths?” Carter asked, his glare intent on Louis, not understanding why Louis was _this_ important. Up until now, he had kept telling them he had nothing to do with the management.

“Keep him unharmed, that’s all I’m asking you to do,” Richard said, again. “We cannot give you the whole management if you do anything to him.”

Louis scrunched his eyebrows, straining his muffled hearing to hear what Richard was saying. Why did they need him alive? He shifted his eyes to the phone in Carter’s hand while he felt Carter’s piercing eyes on him.

“Where is Louis? I want to know he’s sound and alright. How is he?” Richard asked, frantically, out of concern as Carter moved his hand to Louis’ face again, making him try to back away in a weak attempt.

“He’s distressed,” Carter stated, noticing the way Louis kept shivering while looking at him with fear-filled eyes. “Terrified, even, considering the fact that he’s been wetting himself.” He chuckled, noticing the wetness in Louis’ jeans making him feel embarrassed again. “Other than that, he’s fine.”

“I don’t believe you,” Richard said again.

“Well, that’s your problem then,” Carter quipped, moving his slender fingers along Louis’ greasy hair. “You know, I’ve been asking him about his ties with your management. But seems like you’ve given your boy quite some training there, yeah? He hasn’t let out anything. Unfortunately, now, you’re running out of time, Richard. You do realise there’s really less time left, don’t you?”

“He has nothing to do with the management. Don’t ask him anything, it’s useless,” Richard tried to explain again.

“Then, why is it necessary for him to stay alive and stable to get the management?” Carter asked, sensing something wrong and twisted.

“He’s important.” Carter’s frown deepened at Richard’s words again.

Even Louis was confused now, not having known his importance. Why was he important? Why couldn’t they kill him if they wanted the management? He had so many questions in his head but, of course, he knew he wouldn’t be answered. But nothing made sense to him. He didn’t even know if he was hearing Richard clearly or not.

“Well, then, let me ask you this, Griffiths,” Carter said again. “What was the contract Louis signed with Modest or Syco? He did, didn’t he? Why would he be so important otherwise?”

“He did not sign any contract, you’re thinking wrong,” Richard answered. “He did not sign anything.”

“Then explain his importance,” Carter coaxed again, making Louis try to listen more.

“He’s a p-part of One Direction, that’s almost half of the profit source for Modest. He’s important,” Richard said but Carter didn’t seem satisfied. He noticed the hesitance in Richard’s voice and knew he was lying.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. He’s important, why can’t you understand that?”

Carter huffed, knowing this wasn’t a way to get someone to say something. But he wasn’t told what to do if this happened. So, he gave up asking anymore and decided to stick to what he was supposed to do.

“Alright, then. If he’s so important then I spare his life for the next day and a half. You have that much time to come and get him out. Otherwise, he’s going find himself dead. You’ve cost him too much pain already, Griffiths. Maybe I’ll just leave the last finger so you’d have something as a memoir, hm?”

“Let me talk to him,” Richard requested. “Please put me off speaker and talk to him for a minute.”

Carter eyed the boy in front of him before putting the call off speaker and putting the device to Louis’ ear, who flinched away at first.

“Talk,” He ordered, retrieving his hand from Louis’ hair.

“Louis? Louis, are you there?” Louis heard Richard’s voice and couldn’t stop another set of tears at a familiar voice. A voice that somehow reminded him of home. Of something he belonged to. And it was all overwhelming for him, initially.

He let out a few sniffles, trying to get his emotions under control so he could speak or, at least, make a sound.

“Louis?” He heard again.

He parted his lips, intending to speak but nothing came out. He couldn’t find the words to talk, his feeling controlling him and keeping him from doing anything.

“Louis? Are you alright?” Richard asked again, this time, his voice at his softest out of pure concern for the boy.

“Talk,” Carter ordered again, making Louis whimper at the tone.

“Louis?” Richard called again, his voice breaking into a cracking whisper.

“R-Rich-ard,” Louis, finally, croaked in a voice that seemed everything filled with terror, despair and weakness.

“Louis. Louis, I’m sorry for everything. We’ll get you out. We’ll get you out, don’t worry. It’s taking time but we will, Louis.” Louis couldn’t help but cry pathetically at his words since he had already given up hopes on Modest. No matter how important he was, they would never give up the whole management. “Are you alright?” He asked again, hearing low cries along with whimpers.

“Do s-somethi-ing so-on,” He cried, feeling his body shiver more with each passing second. “P-Plea-ase,” He managed to add, making Richard feel concerned if he was even as fine as the man had said.

“Louis? Do you know any of their names?” Richard asked, making Louis try to stop his hysterical cries.

“W-Wha—“

“Do you know anyone’s name? We know there’s more than one person behind this, Louis. But do you identify any of them?”

“No,” He whispered, lowly.

“You don’t know anyone’s name?” Richard asked, trying to get the boy to say anything that could prove useful. Louis looked up at Carter, who sat with an impatient expression written on his face, scared that they’d hurt him if he’d say anything. “Don’t be scared, Louis. They won’t hurt you. They can’t kill you, they need you alive. Just tell me if you know anything about them. Anything. You’ll be fine. They can’t kill you, Louis, come on.”

Louis swallowed, trying to decide what to do. Whose name should he tell? Carter? Brad, Tyler or Gerrard? He didn’t even know their last names. Or Daniel? _Daniel_.. _he’s the one who’s behind this, right?_ Louis thought. He didn’t know much. And didn’t want to suffer anymore.

But if he’d tell them a name, then maybe he could get out sooner. _They need him_ , Louis told himself again, _they won’t kill him_. But he knew he’d only have the time to tell just one name before they’d either hang up or shut him up again. And his mind went back to decide on something. It was worth a shot, maybe.

“Louis?” He heard Richard’s voice again and almost jumped, snapping out of his thoughts. Swallowing thickly, he finally got himself to answer.

“ _Daniel_ ,” He answered as quickly as he could with his broken voice, making Carter frown as he tried to decipher what Louis had just done.

“Daniel who?” Richard asked again and Louis felt scared seeing Carter’s angry expression.

“I don—“ He started but before he could finish, the phone was pulled away from him as Carter hung up, standing up before hurling it at the wall behind Louis.

Feeling tears sting his eyes again, Louis curled into himself as Carter glared at him in anger. Before his foggy mind could register anything, Carter grabbed his left hand, unclenching his small fist before placing his booted foot on it. Louis writhed in pain, crying hysterically as he tried to pull free but it didn’t work. Instead, it only made Carter step on it harder.

He crouched down again, causing more pressure on Louis’ already hurt fingers as he reached for the boy’s face. Brushing away a strand of hair over his eyes, he grabbed his face, forcing him to keep his head pressed against the floor as Louis only shivered more, giving up all fight because he knew it was useless.

“Why did you have to do that, hm? You only get yourself in trouble, Tomlinson.” He said, patting his clammy cheek before standing back up and, finally, left his foot.

Louis cried more, clutching his hand in pain while he only cowered into himself, shivering more than he was before.

“Restrain him, put him to sleep. I don’t want any slips this time,” Carter said, glancing down at Louis again before walking out.

Louis backed away when Brad crouched down, grabbing his hands and causing him to scream in pain. He tried his best to resist and fight with all the energy left in him as they bound him back with the ropes again. He trembled, trying to control himself again but failed.

“No. No!” He repeated, shaking his head when Tyler bent down with a syringe in his hand. He tried backing away but two pairs of hands were holding him in place. “No!” He yelled again.

“Shh, it’s fine. It’s fine,” Someone said, rubbing his forehead, making him want to cry more.

“No,” He cried, weakly, for the last time before he felt the familiar feeling of the drug in his veins. Closing his eyes in distress and exhaustion, Louis let tears fall down his face again as the cloth was pulled between his teeth again. He felt someone adjust him on the floor so his hands weren’t pressed between his back and the floor before he let the darkness comfort him again.


	13. TWELVE

“How could you not tell me all this yesterday?” Alan asked after having heard everything the two of them told him about the call.

“I’m sorry, it just slipped from our minds. We were busy coming up with some negotiation or explanation. We almost forgot until Paul told us that you wanted to talk to us,” Harry Magee answered, making Alan let out a frustrated sigh.

“What was the name Louis said, again?” He asked, a second later.

“Daniel,” Richard replied, looking down in dismay since they couldn’t figure out who Daniel was.

But something struck Alan’s mind, making him give the two of them a curious look before he spoke again.

“Does this person, by any chance, happen to be someone who goes by the name Daniel Ferguson?” He asked out of curiosity, seeing the two of them tense up in their positions. It made Alan wonder if the random name he had dismissed really had a connection with this. “Do you know anyone who goes by the name?” He asked again while Richard glanced at Harry before looking back at Alan.

“Yes,” He whispered in realisation as his hand went up to his forehead, his fingers pressing on the skin there as if in deep thought. “H-How could we forget?” He said in a shaky voice, almost to himself.

“Mr. Griffiths, who is he?” Alan asked, seeing the concern over the older man’s face.

“He … used to be our associate,” Harry answered when Richard couldn’t get himself to explain.

“Associate?” Waters questioned, finding himself confused as to where this was going or how Daniel Ferguson had a connection with Tomlinson or his kidnapping.

“We were colleagues back when we were assistant managers at another firm,” Harry added while Alan only nodded at him to continue. “We wanted to continue together after that but .. we had a m-major fallout and we haven’t really been in contact since.”

“Was all this before Modest was formed?” Alan asked again and Harry nodded in response.

“Yes,” He replied. “A year or two before Modest,” Harry added, making Alan finally breathe in relief as he at least had some dots to connect and he knew he was going to find some more from them.

“What was the reason for you falling out? Was it anything serious and huge?”

“It was regarding starting our own companies,” Richard replied, making Alan look at him. “We wanted to move further from being just assistants and .. we decided to team up and start our own management.”

Harry Magee stood up from his chair, walking over to the tall shelves filled with files and papers and rummaged through them while Richard continued explaining.

“But our ideas conflicted, Ferguson was all money-minded and wanted singers who were the best in their field while we thought we could get those who have what it takes to be big and help them improve. He thought signing with the best, yields best. But it’s actually hard to find already established and enhanced singers.” Alan nodded slightly, asking him to continue while he tried to process everything and make sense out of the whole case. “Then, we were offered a partnership with Simon Cowell’s Syco records and we signed it .. but he didn’t, determined to make it on his own.”

“Here’s his file,” Harry added, placing a file he had dug up from the huge stacks, now lying on the floor beside the desk.

Alan picked it up, flipping the pages as he scanned the information printed on them. _Daniel Ferguson._ He, finally, understood why the name sounded so familiar to him earlier. He was the founder of the BlueMoon Records. Not a famous one, but still big enough to have it’s own place in the industry. It was a rival of Modest and, although, it didn’t mean much, it was enough to know that there was some connection and things were slowly starting to make sense. Ferguson had also filed a case against Modest almost eight to nine years back, claiming that the idea for the management was his, accusing Simon Cowell, Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee of plagiarism. But the case was sealed, after lack of proper evidence and baseless statements.

“He thinks the artists we sign with are unworthy of all the fame and recognition they get only for their looks and stage presence. That they have no talent and are just in the industry because they have signed to Modest, because of our roots and reach in the show business,” Harry explained once Alan looked up from the file. “But we do know that he is jealous of whatever we have achieved and that we’re a bigger recording label than his. And .. it is possible that he’s just doing all this to either claim his hands on Modest’s deals and profits or bring it down to nothing. That’s what the calls suggest.”

Looking back down, Alan turned the pages, going over the rest of it. Newspaper and magazine clippings were stuck to the papers, articles in which Daniel Ferguson had blatantly lashed out against Modest and its associates. There were numerous articles but one caught his eye.

One in which Ferguson had referred to One Direction as a bunch of talentless fuckboys who are making their way into limelight solely because of crazy teenagers and Simon Cowell’s backing. It gave Alan the proof that whoever Daniel Ferguson was, definitely, had something against Modest and One Direction’s success.

Going back a few pages, his eyes searched through the clipping and articles once again to find something more than just Modest or One Direction. Hopefully, something about Louis Tomlinson, although, the chances were really less. Frantically searching, he finally found what he was looking for. An article that said he had supported a few comments from a former X Factor winner and a judge, both of whom had criticised Tomlinson’s vocal potential.

It was a vague reference but maybe it could have been relevant to the case. Immediately, Alan removed his phone, searching up the issue to go through whatever the statements and claims were and realised that it was the same. The same thing about how Louis Tomlinson wasn’t capable of extending his singing capacity and that he was just another lucky X Factor import like his four other bandmates.

“And how does Louis Tomlinson fit into the picture?” Alan asked again, looking up at the two of them but neither of them answered, only exchanging hesitated glances. “Mr. Griffiths, hiding things will not help Tomlinson out of the situation he is in. Ferguson has some connection with everything so just tell me whatever you know.”

Richard nodded, letting out a heavy sigh before he started telling what they knew.

“During One Direction’s initial days, they were criticised quite a lot for not having much to present vocally. And after some comments and articles and stuff like that, Louis had started feeling insecure about his contribution to the band, his limited solos, worried that all this could affect his solo career after the band since One Direction’s contract was only for six years and they are supposed to go their own ways after that and .. Louis had spoken to us about it. We assured him that we’d talk to Simon Cowell and maybe improve his status.”

Alan placed the file back onto the table while shoving the phone back into his coat pocket, now seeming quite intrigued in whatever the two of them had to say.

“A few weeks later, Simon asked Louis to meet us again and he assured him that his solo career would be successful and asked him not to sign with any other records outside Modest because he wanted to .. be like his mentor so Louis could feel more confident that there was someone even if everyone turn him down.” Alan only looked back at Richard, not understanding where it was going. “Louis didn’t want others in the band to know about it and .. we decided to keep it that way. He agreed to completely trusting Simon Cowell and Modest. Simon confirmed a record deal with Syco and Modest which was solely under Louis’ name .. it was kind of like a pre-reserved position. We didn’t tell Louis about it because, for now, we wanted him to focus on the band.”

“What were the deals with Syco and Modest?” Alan finally asked after a few seconds of silence and thinking.

“With Syco, the deal was that they’ve already reserved Louis as a client under their labels .. intending to make his solo career a success,” Harry answered, making Alan sigh in confusion once again.

“And with Modest?” He asked again, knowing there has to be something else related to Tomlinson because it was clear the boy had a connection with everything.

Richard and Harry exchanged another look before Richard finally spoke.

“Louis had shown interest in management and organisation. He is really good at working behind the scenes, going by his excellence in lyrics and music production and … Simon  thought it’d be refreshing to have a young and budding mind behind everything and ..” He trailed off for a second and Alan scrunched his eyebrows, feeling as if he knew what was coming next. “.. he registered a part of Modest, _Triple Strings_ , under Louis’ name so he could take over it when One Direction breaks up. It has a few upcoming artists and bands signed under the label.”

“What does this have to do with .. him trying to threaten to kill Louis Tomlinson to get you to give up Modest? Why did he take him? Why not any of the other four?” Alan questioned, finally, finding some hope of being close to cracking the whole case.

“Maybe because ... to get his hands on Modest, all of it, he needs Louis’ signatures on the papers of the label. _Triple Strings_ is close to half of Modest’s deals and .. because it is registered under Louis’ name, Ferguson needs him to comply too. He thinks Louis signed the contract but he hasn’t yet. He doesn’t even know about his name appearing on Modest’s label. And now that they keep asking about contracts, he doesn’t answer because he doesn’t know anything, which puts him in more danger since he doesn’t know what he is supposed to comply to.”

Alan took a second to breathe before putting all the ends together and realised that this was much more messed up than he had thought.

 

 

 

\---------------------------------------

 

 

 

The small door at the end of the warehouse started to creak open and Louis was pulled out of his forced slumber once again. He groaned, opening his eyes but closed them just as soon at the blinding light. He didn’t attempt to move his pain-ridden body even as he heard heavy footsteps approach his bound and lifeless form in the dark corner.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.” He heard one of them say. _Tyler. It was Tyler._ He whimpered, weakly, as a booted foot nudged his side.

He finally managed to open his eyes, squinting them to allow as little light as possible. And, that’s when he saw four men standing above him, surrounding him like vultures. The four men who had been holding him in this damned place for a long time. He didn’t know how long, he lost count after four days. But he knew it was long, for sure.

One of them, Brad, crouched down and ruffled his hair, making him flinch slightly.

“Wake up, buddy,” Brad quipped, sarcastically. “You’re going to be free from today,” He said and Louis couldn’t help but look up at him with hope in his eyes.

Were they going to let him go?

He opened his mouth to ask but choked, gagging on the cloth that he had forgotten was forced between his teeth earlier and ended up coughing into it. His throat felt dry, almost like sandpaper and the cloth kept itching the back of it, adding to his discomfort.

Brad grabbed his arm and pulled him into a sitting position, to which he complied easily because he was too weak to even sit up straight. He dragged him closer to the wall before letting him lean against it. Louis closed his eyes, breathing in the stale air and trying to calm his rigid breathing so he could, at least, relish the fact that he was going to go home.

The cloth forced into his mouth was yanked out, suddenly, making him cough from being gagged for long hours. Before he could even collect his senses, he felt a bottle pressed to his lips while a hand grabbed his jaw in place. He, greedily, took in sips of water he had been craving for since long. But his empty stomach couldn’t take so much and he choked on the clear liquid, jerking his head back while gasping as the cool water splashed onto his shirt. However, he did savour the feeling of the water against the rough and dry insides of his throat.

“See? Greed always kills,” Gerrard, the third guy said, capping the water bottle when Louis struggled to breathe again.

Louis couldn’t believe he’d say that. After all, they were the ones who were greedy enough to hold him hostage for this long so they could get whatever they demanded from the management for his release. But he didn’t open his mouth. He just remained silent, still trying to control his breath as he saw Carter, the leader of the other three, crouch down on his heels in front of him.

He looked at Louis’ face, calculatingly, as if trying to read his mind. For seconds, he eyed the blue eyed boy with a smug smile that was always present on his sinister face. Louis flinched, backing more into the wall behind him when Carter raised his hand to his split lip, making Louis wince at the sting. Carter chuckled and retrieved his hand, standing back up before looking at the other three men.

“Bring him out,” He ordered, heading for the door along with Gerrard and Louis couldn’t help but notice Carter’s hand going to the gun tucked in his belt.

What is going on? They are letting him go. Right? The management agreed to their demand. Right? Louis didn’t understand what was going on as he watched Carter exit the place, closing the door behind him with a slam.

Brad yanked him up to his feet and grabbed his arm while Tyler took the other and they started dragging him along as they walked towards the door. Louis couldn’t help but let them carry him, his bound ankles uselessly trailing along the dusty floor while he didn’t try to move his stiffened hands because the rope holding them behind his back burned his skin like hell.

He hissed, squeezing his eyes shut at the outside light that stung his eyes when they got out of the warehouse. A couple of seconds later, having regained his vision, he looked around and frowned at the sight. There was no car. No one from the management waiting with the money for exchange. But he only saw Carter standing beside Gerrard, who had positioned himself behind a camera. And Louis’ heart sank, finally understanding what they meant by him being _free from today_. Panic rushed inside Louis as he shifted his eyes to Carter’s which held no emotion, not even the smugness they always did.

“No,” He whispered, brokenly, in a hoarse voice as he tried to free himself from the two men holding him but he stood no chance against them. “No,” He protested, louder this time but none of them seemed fazed at all.

“Is the tape ready to record?” Carter asked, eyes unmoving from a weakly struggling Louis.

Gerrard gave him a stiff nod and Louis knew he was helpless. There was no one, nothing to stop these four men from writing his fate. But he knew he had the chance to speak. In the time he had been here, there were rare moments when he’d be left ungagged and able to speak. So, he did. He spoke without thinking as the two men forced him towards the other two standing a few meters away from the warehouse.

“Don’t do this, please. I can get you the money. I can get you the money you want!” He said, his voice coming out much weaker than he had expected.

But, unfortunately, for him, nobody was in the mood to listen. He kept protesting until he was finally forced to his knees a few steps away from the camera, facing it. Whimpering as Tyler placed his foot on Louis’ bound ones to keep him in place while holding his shoulders in an iron grip. He knew he had no choice apart from pleading. He knew that was the only thing he could do to get himself out of this. But seeing these people’s stone faces, he also knew that convincing would probably not work with these monsters.

“Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this!” Louis begged again with teary eyes. “I’ll do anything you want! You can take all my mo—“

“Brad?” Carter said, giving the beefy man behind Louis a nod.

Louis saw Brad lean down with a stoic face, reaching for the cloth hanging from his neck but Louis jerked his face away the best he could.

“It won’t hurt, Louis. I’ll make it as soon as possible,” Carter said, loading his gun with bullets while a small, red light flickered on the camera, implying it had started recording.   

“No, Carter, no! Please, don’t do this! I will get you the money, I promise! I don’t want to die.” Louis cried, panicking more when Tyler held him in a headlock and Brad forced the cloth back into his mouth before pulling the ends tight so it wouldn’t slip off.

Now having no other choice, Louis only looked at Carter with his fear-filled, wide eyes begging him to have the least bit of mercy to not snatch his life away from him.

“No hard feelings, Tomlinson. But your stupid management did not get us what we wanted even though we had given them enough time already. Maybe, they don’t think you are worth saving so why don’t we just finish it, yeah?” Carter said, raising his gun and aiming it at Louis, who shook his head, mumbling unintelligible words into the cloth.

Louis squeezed his eyes shut, letting the tears slip from his eyes. He never thought it would all come down to this. Did he really suffer this much to just be killed at the end? He would have given up much before if he knew this would happen. He wouldn’t even have stepped out of that club that day if he knew he was going to be kidnapped. But, now, he couldn’t do anything as he convinced his mind to take the bullet.

And, soon, he would be no more. No more singing. No more tours. No more recording sessions. No more interviews. No more photoshoots. Nothing. He couldn’t even remember the last time he spoke to his mum and sisters. Or the boys. But he only imagined their faces before hanging his head low in defeat, giving his captors full control over him as he heard the gun’s safety being taken off.

This was it, he knew.


	14. A/N

Hey, guys! I'm really sorry if you thought this was an update. It isn't one, unfortunately.

I haven't updated as much as I do since I'm busy moving out of my house at the moment. So I'll try to get back to writing as soon as I can. Apart from that, I've been going through some serious writer's block and it totally sucks. I'm really sorry if you're like really eager for the next chapter coz I left the previous one on a huge cliffhanger.

I mean, I know the gyst of the story. I know where I want it to go but I don't know how to take it there (I don't know if that made sense). But I hope you understood what I'm trying to say. 

So, I'd really like to know if you guys want to see anything next. I mean, like, what, YOU as a reader, want to happen in this story. Let me know in the comments, then maybe I can overcome the stupid writer's block. 

Just let me know if anyone still wants me to continue this. I'm up for it even if just one person is ready to read. So, anyway, thanks for reading and not killing me in your head for no update. 

I love everyone who's read, left kudos and commented on this. You guys motivate me to keep writing. So, thank you.

◟̽◞̽


	15. THIRTEEN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the note at the end..

Louis shivered in fear, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for the sound of the bullet before everything would end but nothing happened for a few seconds. And the longer it was taking, the more his fear kept building. Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing blared through the silent and tense air, making Louis flinch at first. And then he realised that it wasn’t a gunshot.

Opening his eyes, Louis looked up with a blurry vision and saw Carter lower the gun as he answered his phone while Louis took in a small breath of relief but was still terrified with the fact that he was going to be killed. In his head, he was constantly wishing that it was someone from the management who had called and that he was going to get out soon. But, somewhere, he didn’t have that hope left anymore.

He had no choice but to just silently look ahead as Carter spoke in an almost hushed tone. Even if he were louder, Louis probably wouldn’t have heard him because his rapid heartbeat was the only thing he could hear. It was almost after a few minutes that Carter finally hung up and panic rushed inside Louis once again as he saw the man walk towards him with the gun in his hand. Pulling the cloth out of Louis’ mouth, he grabbed his chin, making him look up at his dark and malicious eyes.

“You’re such a lucky bastard, Tomlinson. I don’t even know whether to call you lucky or unlucky,” He quipped, making Louis frown in confusion while Carter only smirked, patting the terrified boy’s cheek, making him flinch a bit. “You’re staying here for some more time.”

And Louis felt a heavy weight off his chest, knowing he wouldn’t be dying at least. But he was going to stay here. _He was going to stay here._ No, he can’t- he won’t stay here.

“No,” He exclaimed in disbelief, wishing Carter was just lying and that he was going home. “Please let me go,” He pleaded again, feeling tears form in his eyes again.

“Shh, you will go. Don’t worry,” Carter mocked, moving his hand to pat Louis’ hair. “Just not now. Your management said they’re working on the deal, so I don’t think it’ll take long,” He added before grabbing the cloth to put it back into Louis’ mouth but he jerked his head away.

“Please. Please, let me go! I will give you whatever money you want! I promise. Please, let me go. I- I don’t want to stay here, ple-ease,” He cried, his voice cracking towards the end out of despair. “I want to go home. I want to go home,” He said again, letting the tears run down his face before Carter forced the cloth between his teeth and tightened it around his head.

He cried and fought with everything left in him as they forced him back into the damned warehouse, but to no avail. He didn’t want to stay here any longer and only wanted to go home. But he had no choice. He was helpless. His mind was conflicted on whether he wanted them to kill him or not. Because one part of him wanted to do everything he could to get out of here and go home while another wished for them to just kill him and end his suffering.

Louis only cried, shaking worse than before as they tied him back to the pole, cutting off all his hopes of getting out. Once they had made sure he was bound, he saw Carter crouch down in front of him again. Louis looked at him with sad and pleading eyes while none of them were really concerned.

“I understand you’re eager to get out, Tomlinson,” He said, raising his hand, making Louis back away against the pole. “But I don’t really care how you feel. So shut up and stuff your emotions inside.”

Louis tried his best but he couldn’t stop his hysterical sobs and he felt as if he’d choke due to his unsteady breathing while the cloth in his mouth wasn’t helping.

“I said, stop fucking crying!” Carter yelled again, making Louis flinch at his tone as he pressed his back to the pole as much as he could without hurting his left hand.

 It took a few seconds for Louis’ cries and whimpers to finally die before Carter noticed the trouble he seemed to be having to breathe due to being gagged and removed it from his mouth. Louis coughed slightly, feeling his head ache again as he tried to take in as much air as he could. He felt a bottle pressed to his lips again and took all the cool water in until the bottle was empty.

Carter placed a hand on his cold cheek, forcing him to look at him again as he looked into his terrified and almost lifeless blue eyes.

“I know you have something to do with the management, Louis. Something you haven’t been telling us,” He said, tightening his grip around Louis’ jaw, his fingernails painfully digging into Louis’ tender skin. “But, at least, Richard Griffiths said that you were important and turns out, it’s true. Because you’re needed to be kept alive.”

Louis was confused again and just wanted to cry. He didn’t even know why he was important or what he had to do with the management. He looked back at Carter in puzzlement as he saw him remove his gun and place its barrel against Louis’ shin, making him let out a frightened whimper. He tried to move his legs close to his body but Carter retrieved his hand from his jaw and held his bound ankles in place.

“Tell me what you know. Come on, be a good boy. You don’t want to get hurt, do you?” He said, nudging the gun against Louis’ jeans.

“I don’t know. Please, I don’t know anything,” He said, almost emptily, knowing he was going to get hurt because he knew nothing.

“Come on, Louis. It will really hurt to get shot in the leg,” Carter teased while Louis only shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to run for a few days,” He added.

“I don’t know,” Louis whispered, letting another set of tears stream down his face. “I don’t kno—“

Louis let out an ear-piercing scream, hunching forward as much as the ropes allowed at the ripping pain that shot through his leg. He tried to pull his knees close to his chest but Carter was holding his ankles in a death grip and he could only squirm against the ropes. Crying, he moved his eyes to the little blood around his leg before looking up at Carter, who had placed the gun away.

“Told you, it would hurt. You never listen, Tomlinson. Stop crying,” He said, placing his hand on top of Louis’ blood-soaked jeans, making him whimper while he tried to contain his cries again. “Again, tell me or I can hurt you more than this,” He added, making a shiver run down Louis’ spine as he continuously shook his head.

“I don’t know anything. Believe me, I don’t know anything,” Louis whispered out of exhaustion as he felt dizzy at the sight of his own blood.

“You’re really brave to keep lying even after all this, Louis,” Carter said, pressing down on the bullet, making Louis cry out again.

“No, I’m not lying. I’m not lying, please!” He cried and Carter finally let go off his leg while he pulled his knees close to himself and cried, burying his head between his knees.

He heard shuffling around but didn’t want to look up as he was too consumed with pain and sadness at that moment.

“You can keep your secret from us as much as you want, Tomlinson.” He heard Carter say as he felt a hand pull the collar of his denim jacket away from his neck. “But you should know that it’ll only cost you more suffering and not help you. I can’t wait for us to find Modest’s documents related to you, Louis. You’ll probably regret hiding it from us that day,” Carter added before Louis let out a weak cry at a sharp sting he felt in his neck and a few seconds later, he blacked out.

 

 

 

\----------------------------------

 

 

 

Zayn’s phone started ringing from the coffee table breaking the silence that was surrounding his whole flat. Reluctantly, he walked over to the living room before looking at the screen. A number he didn’t recognize was flashing on it and he started thinking if he should answer it or not. But he, eventually, did.

“Hello?” He said into the phone.

“Zayn, this is Trevor,” The voice said and a strange feeling occupied Zayn’s mind. He didn’t know if it was a good or a bad one. He didn’t know why Trevor had called. But he did know it was the last day the people had given for Modest to comply.

“Did the management do anything?” Zayn asked in a hesitant voice.

On one hand, he wanted to know whether Louis was free and if he could see him again but on the other hand, he didn’t want to know if it was something bad.

“They did,” Trevor replied and a huge wave of relief swept through Zayn as he took in a relieved breath.

“Really?” He asked, hopefully, feeling a small smile form on his lips at only the thought of seeing Louis’ face again. But his happiness didn’t last too long at Trevor’s next words.

“They’ve tried to call the person we think is behind all this and .. they think they can decide on a negotiation,” Trevor explained, making Zayn’s mix of panic and anger return.

“Please tell me it’s not true, Trevor,” He said. “I know Paul and your whole team can’t be so incapable. Just get him back, why is it taking this long? It’s been over ten days. We don’t even know if he’s alive yet!”

“We don’t know much about the details, Zayn. We can’t do much, I’m sorry. But they won’t kill him,” Trevor tried to assure him.

“How do you know they won’t kill him? How do you know they haven’t done anything to him already?” Zayn yelled in a tone he didn’t think he should’ve used against Trevor. “How do you even know he’s fine?” He asked again, his voice breaking into a whisper this time. “Where’s Paul? I want to talk to him, where’s Paul?”

“He’s busy with some work, Zayn,” Trevor replied, making Zayn sigh in annoyance. “Listen, um, Alan Waters asked if any of you know anyone named Daniel Ferguson.”

_Daniel Ferguson?_

“Who’s he?” Zayn asked after a second of thought.

“Well, I don’t know. But .. uh, just ask the others and also Louis’ family or Eleanor if they know about any kind of connection between him and that person. Can you do that?”

“I-I will, yes,” Zayn replied. “Is .. is this related to the case?” He asked, unsure if what he had assumed was right or wrong.

“Yes,” Trevor answered. “That’s why I need you to do it as soon as you can.”

 

 

 

\--------------------------------------------

 

 

 

“He never told us any of this,” Harry whispered once Zayn and Eleanor had finished explaining the situation to him, Niall and Liam. “Y-You think this whole thing has something to do with his insecurities?”

“It’s possible,” Zayn answered. “I don’t really know if he’s signed a contract but it seems so.”

“We just wanted to know if .. you knew anyone named Daniel Ferguson,” Eleanor added.

“No. Who is he?” Niall asked, glancing between the two of them.

“We don’t know, either,” Zayn replied. “I don’t remember the name but, apparently, he has something to do with the case. We thought you guys would know something.”

“What would he have to do with the case?” Harry asked again. “I mean, is he, like, from some kind of a criminal background or does he have any connection with the management?” He added.

Zayn and Eleanor shared a confused glance because they hadn’t really thought of it. How was Daniel Ferguson related to the case?

“Well, it they think we might know something then I guess he’d have a connection with either us or Modest .. I don’t know,” Zayn trailed off as he considered Harry’s question.

Eleanor, however, shifted her attention towards Liam, who had been quiet all this while. Now, he was sitting on the couch with one hand’s finger scrolling through his phone while another hand restlessly rubbing his chin. He seemed stressed, all of them were. But he seemed stressed with whatever he was seeing .. probably. And she couldn’t help but wonder what it was.

“Didn’t Paul or Trevor tell you guys about anything?” Niall asked, pulling her out of her trail of thoughts.

“No. They just asked us to talk to you guys and .. I really don’t think even they know what he has to do with the case either. Trevor had said that they weren’t informed much because all of this was supposed to be confidential,” Zayn told them.

“Guys?” Liam finally spoke for the first time, making all of them look at him. “I-I think I might know what he has to do with this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys .. so I just wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who commented on the previous part. I feel happy that people are liking this story and want me to keep updating. I wanted to reply to each one of your comments but instead, I chose to write it down here. Anyway, I think all of that actually did help me in giving an update. Even I can't believe I wrote this chapter in a few hours. And, yeah, I'll continue the story. 
> 
> *cue Louis' voice* I've started so I've got to finish!
> 
> P.S. Please ignore the fact that this chapter was kinda boring and crappy but I'll improve it..
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading it so far and, hopefully, you'll keep reading it 'til the end! Just know, that every time this story gets new hits or kudos or a comment, it makes me really, really happy! I LOUve ya guys!
> 
> ◟̽◞̽


	16. FOURTEEN

“What do you know, Mr. Payne?” Alan asked the tensed boy sitting in front of him.

“I don’t know where to start,” Liam replied a second later, having no clue how to initiate telling what he knew.

“Just tell me whatever you know and I’ll try to join the ends,” He told Liam, who nodded hesitantly before finally speaking.

“I-I think all of this could have something to do with Daniel Ferguson’s son,” He said, making Alan frown slightly.

“I didn’t know about his son but .. how do you think it’s related?” Alan asked again.

“I’ve read a few articles and stories about how Daniel has always … criticized Modest and it’s outputs. One reason could be the one that Richard and Harry had told you but they might’ve forgotten one thing,” Liam trailed off, making Alan lean forward on the desk, trying to understand where it was going to go. “His son’s name was Evan and .. a few years back he had actually wanted to get associated with Modest as an artist. He had everything set but almost at the eleventh hour, Modest had dropped all deals with him, I don’t really know why. It kinda hit him hard, I guess since we stopped seeing him waiting at the reception or cabin at the Modest office. And I never really saw him after that. I don’t know where he is at the moment but as far as we’ve looked since yesterday on the internet, there isn’t really a record of him with any other companies. Not even Daniel’s.”

A few seconds of silence followed Liam’s revelation as Alan tried to take in everything he had to say.

“What do you mean there’s no record of him?” He finally asked, making Liam shrug slightly. “Is he--?”

“No, I don’t know if he’s .. dead or alive. But .. record, in the sense, nothing about his professional front as an artist or music producer,” He said.

Alan nodded slightly in understanding and was about to say something but the sound of his phone ringing stopped him. He considered picking it up since he really wanted to discuss this matter first but answered it as soon as he saw Paul’s name flashing on the screen.

“Paul? What is it?” He asked as soon as he had picked it up.

“We have a lead on Daniel’s latest location going by his number we had tracked.”

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis felt a really warm hand roughly tap his cheek, forcing him to get out of his sleep. But he didn’t want to. He wished he could’ve just died in his sleep because he didn’t want to be awake anymore. He didn’t want to be awake in this hell anymore. Because all he felt was pain and misery. And they weren’t the best combination.

He felt a bottle of cold water pressed to his lips and greedily took it in without even trying to open his eyes first. All he knew was he needed something to keep him alive and going. He was famished beyond belief and only craved for some food at the moment. Breathing in relief, Louis slowly opened his eyes once the bottle was pulled away and couldn’t quite make out his surroundings. They were different, different from what he remembered the warehouse to be. It seemed like the room they’d taken him to a couple of times to see Carter. But he didn’t really trust his eyes and his drugged mind. It could’ve just been him hallucinating again.

Louis knew he wasn’t tied to the pole anymore. He was on a chair. Looking down, he realised his hands were free to move, they weren’t restrained anymore. He could feel a throbbing pain in his leg but tried not to let it affect him since someone had luckily decided to feed him some soup. Although, he normally would’ve hated being fed like this but, at that moment, he didn’t care.

Once done, he was given some more water before someone wiped his face with a wet cloth. He raised his head to look around and saw two figures around him. One was trying to inspect his pupils while the other worked on tying his wrists to the chairs armrests. He couldn’t do much so he just let them do whatever they were doing. Although, he didn’t get the point. He wasn’t getting away. He knew he wasn’t getting away.

Instead, he rested his head against the back of the chair, trying to concentrate on his forced and slow breathing. Now, he had no more faith, no more hope left in him. He knew he was stuck in this fucked up place until they had enough mercy to set him free. He regretted even wishing for them to not kill him the other day.

Once done binding him to the chair, the two men left, closing the door behind them while Louis just sat silently not knowing how to get himself to sleep again. Slowly moving his eyes down, he looked at his shivering left hand. Two of his damaged fingers were completely numb and turning a slight shade of blue. He continued staring at his hand until he was having another breakdown again. He only wanted to get out, go home, just somewhere away from here but all he could do was just sit here and cry. Like a loser. Something he never wanted to be.

Louis felt suffocated again, unable to breathe as he tried to control his cries. But he couldn’t. He now knew that he had lost complete control over himself. His own mind wasn’t listening to him. He just felt like a ragdoll. Being controlled by Carter and his men, however they want. He didn’t even know if he had anymore fight in him. Nothing that could keep him going until the end. And that scared him.

 _He’s needed to be kept alive_ , he vaguely remembered Carter saying those words. But why? His head hurt even with the slightest effort to think so he just didn’t. Now, he only wanted to, at least, listen to his mum’s voice. His sisters. He wanted to see them again but had convinced himself that he wouldn’t.

He tried to press his back against the chair as much as he could, closing his eyes, to hold himself together from breaking down again. But it was too late, for sure. His nose was running and his eyes and head felt heavy with all the crying he had been doing. It was a few seconds later that he heard the door open again. It was behind him and he didn’t even attempt to lift and turn his head to see who it was. It would, probably, be Carter again.

Louis continued whimpering and sobbing, keeping his eyes trained towards his lap even though he could hear footsteps approach him. Whimpering when a hand touched his hair, he tried to move his head away from the touch. He could hear a chair being dragged against the floor before someone sat down opposite him. He felt a presence beside him, someone standing beside his chair with the hand still ruffling his greasy hair, making him close his eyes tighter.

“Ssshh, stop crying.” He heard the person say to him in a hushed tone and he obliged. At least, tried to.

The hand took hold of his hair, slowly forcing him to look up and Louis frowned seeing someone he hadn’t seen before seated opposite him. He didn’t believe his eyes, initially and blinked to get rid of the tear-clouded vision but he was right. He hadn’t seen the person before.

The man had a creepy smile on his face, his features making him look scary to Louis for some reason. He looked naturally sinister. Or it was just Louis’ terrified mind that was finding every strange person scary.

“It is nice to finally meet you, Louis,” He said in a deep voice that sort of reminded him of Harry but colder and less cheeky. Louis blankly kept staring at him, not saying or asking anything because he didn’t want to put in any more energy.

The room was pretty dark with light from only a small bulb hanging above them, giving very little illumination. And the gloomy feeling made the place look more frightening to him.

“So, I’ve heard you haven’t quite been cooperative with my men, have you?” The man asked following a heavy sigh, looking at Louis but the terrified boy didn’t answer. “Well, too bad for you but we now know that you have something to do with Modest management.”

 _Who is he?_ Louis thought. Even though he wasn’t thinking straight, he still knew that he doesn’t remember this man even in the slightest memory _. Could it be the one who’s behind all this?_ Louis internally groaned at the pain in his head and gave up thinking. Again.

Louis’ eyes didn’t move from the man as some other person gave him a file and he opened it. Unclipping a paper from it, the person held it up in front of Louis. He wanted to read it but his almost cloudy vision and the room’s dim lighting wasn’t really helping.

He could make out a few paragraphs of words in black ink, covering almost half of the paper but the font was so small that he had to strain his eyes in order to comprehend it. However, he could see all the letters that were standing out in bold ink compared to the others. _Modest! Management, Syco Records, Triple Strings, Louis Tomlinson, Simon Cowell..._

Whatever he could understand made him scared again. Because now it was like a confirmation to him that everything definitely had something to do with him and it frightened him more. It frightened him more that he was involved in whatever this was. It frightened him that it wasn’t all a misunderstanding like he had more than wished for. It frightened him that Modest also had something to do with it. It frightened him that they hadn’t done anything to help him yet. And it frightened him that they had just left him to suffer in this situation when he actually needed them.

“There’s a whole part of Modest that’s registered under your name, Louis,” The man continued but Louis was still trying to read what was printed on the paper. “Quite an achievement, isn’t it?” He mocked. “You actually succeeded in keeping it from us for this long, congratulations.”

Louis couldn’t believe his eyes or his mind. Was he hallucinating everything again? He didn’t know. But he did wish that it was just the case. That it was only his imagination and none of this was true. That he didn’t have anything to do with whoever these people were. But he didn’t know anything.

All he knew at the moment was that the paper said that he owned something called _Triple Strings._ When did all this even happen? He didn’t know. Too busy trying to figure things out, Louis hadn’t realised that he was shaking again. Out of fear, out of panic, out of misery. He just didn’t know anything.

A tear left his eye a second later and the man in front of him frowned, handing the paper back to the other guy and raised his hand which made Louis flinch back out of fear. He closed his eyes again, feeling a thumb brush away the tear from his face before tapping his cheek, making him open them and look at the unfamiliar face in front of him.

“I didn’t sign it. I don’t even remember anything about it,” Louis whispered, tiredly, hoping they’d listen but he also knew he wasn’t so fortunate. At least, not in this situation.

“I think you’ve lied enough already. So I don’t really trust your answers anymore because I have the proof with me,” The man said, retrieving his hand from Louis’ face.

“Take it,” Louis said again in his weak and hoarse voice. “Just take whatever you want. I- I don’t want it .. please let me go,” He pleaded again, making the others in the room chuckle.

“That’s what we’ve been waiting for so far. Don’t worry, I’m going to get it anyway. I’m just waiting for your pathetic excuse of a management to give up all other Modest related documents,” The man said, leaning a bit forward in his chair to meet Louis’ empty eyes.

“What do you want?” Louis mustered up the courage to ask again. “I can pay you if that’s what it takes for you to let m—“

“Ssshh,” The man interrupted in a creepy way that made Louis cringe internally. “I don’t want just your part of it, Louis. I want the whole Modest management.”

“I have nothing to do with the management,” Louis replied, swallowing thickly. “I’m only a part of One Direction.”

“But the paperworks say otherwise, Tomlinson. Lying won’t help you anymore.”

“No,” Louis whispered. “I- I don’t know what it is about. I don’t have anything under my name,” He repeated, raising his voice a bit to be heard better. “Why don’t you believe me?”

“I just don’t,” The man taunted which was followed by a few seconds of silence as he stood up before speaking again, his piercing eyes still trained on Louis’ face. “Did you enjoy your stay here? I hope my men treated you well,” He said, his hands clutching Louis’ smaller ones, making the boy whimper at the pressure on his left fingers. Seeing Louis’ struggle to release his hand, the man leant forward applying more of his weight on them and Louis tried to hold himself back from screaming.

“I’ll take that as a no, then. You’re too used to luxury, aren’t you?” He said again but Louis just looked away, crying at the building pain that returned in his fingers. “Tell me about it, Louis. How’s your life? How does it feel, living one you don’t deserve, hm? One you’re not worthy of?” The man asked in a mocking tone while Louis whisper something that was completely inaudible. He moved his right hand to hold Louis’ chin, forcing him to look back at him. “What did you say?”

“I-It hurts. Please, it hu-urts,” Louis cried, still trying to get his bound hand away but it didn’t really help. It was a few seconds later that he finally released his hand and Louis breathed in relief, letting out a choked sob at the sharp pain that shot from his fingers. “Why are you doing this? Why me? Why?” He whispered, repeatedly.

“I’m amazed by your success, Louis. I really am,” The man continued, ignoring Louis’ desperate questions. “I mean, for someone who can’t really sing and has such a weak voice, don’t you think you’ve held up your place pretty well in the industry for so long?”

Louis felt bad at his words. He shouldn’t have, but he still did. It was what he hated the most. How he was so insecure about his voice.

“Seems like Modest is helping you really well,” He continued. “Let’s face it, you’re in One Direction just because of your little touch with Modest insiders, isn’t it?”

“No,” Louis whispered again, not wanting to hear anything else that could possibly make him feel worse.

“It is true, Louis. I know Simon Cowell has your back. He was the one who made you sign up for _Triple Strings_ , wasn’t he?”

“No,” Louis said again, shaking his head tiredly. “I did not sign for anything,” He added, making the man chuckle bitterly.

“I know Modest too well, Louis, just so you know. Don’t think I don’t know what goes on in their heads,” He said, staring at Louis intently, moving his hand to hold Louis’ face again. “They only want good-looking, horny teenagers like you. Ones who have no talent, whatsoever, but enough of stupid charm to make girls scream. Isn’t that right?”

“No. Stop,” Louis said, trying to look away but the man held his face in place.

“Don’t deny it, Louis. Who would’ve even thought that five talentless, rejected boys from X-Factor could actually become so famous? You didn’t even win that stupid freak show and you think you can sing. Really? Modest has no taste, Louis. It’s such a waste of talent. While  I can make it better. I can give it a better reputation, better profits. And, most importantly, better singers. Not man-whores like you and your four other equally useless bandmates,” He said, his every word somehow affecting Louis more and not in a good way.

He had tried to put his insecurities behind after Simon, Richard and Harry had spoken to him when he consulted them but it still stung him whenever someone would bring it up.

“Please, stop,” Louis whispered again, closing his eyes in order to block him out.

He heard the man let out a slight chuckle, patting the boy’s head as he went back over to his chair.

“What do you want from me?” Louis asked again, opening his splotchy eyes to look at the man in front of him.

“I only need your signature on those papers that you’re handing over your part of the management to me,” The man replied, vaguely.

“Then just take them. Just take them and let me go! Please. Please, let me go,” Louis begged again, wishing that he’d just listen but the man only chuckled.

“It isn’t so easy, Louis. I need to wait until I get the papers. Patience is important. Moreover, I can’t let you go until then because I need you right here. That’ll give me the guarantee that Modest will comply,” He said, making Louis fear more knowing he was going to stay here longer. “Speaking of which, maybe I should give your management a call, then?"


	17. FIFTEEN

“We need to do something soon.” Was all Niall could say after he had managed to sit through the meeting Louis’ family, the other boys and Alan Waters had with the Modest managers.

“Niall, calm down,” Zayn said, ushering him towards one of the chairs in the reception, allowing him to sit down.

“I- I can’t .. I- they’ll kill him! Why aren’t they understanding that?” He exclaimed, almost shaking with panic.

“Niall, come on. Get yourself together, mate. Lou’s family is here too, we need to be strong with them,” Zayn tried assuring the boy who had now broken into tears again, rubbing his back soothingly.

Even though Zayn was making attempts to calm Niall down, he had a very bad feeling in his gut too. He didn’t show it because he knew he shouldn’t. It, probably, wasn’t the right time to do that. Because the situation around him was even more sickening.

With no leads on where Louis could be or his state, they had no other choice. They didn’t even know if he was fine or they had already killed him. Just the thought of that was enough to make their blood run cold.

Looking away, he shifted his gaze towards Harry who was busy comforting Eleanor and Jay. They hadn’t let Louis’ sisters come to the office, they didn’t even know the exact situation yet but he knew they’d have a lot of explaining to do to the girls. Especially Lottie, since she was smart and old enough to understand the surroundings. Zayn could see Liam discussing something with Paul and Waters and wanted to know what it was about but he didn’t want to leave Niall alone.  

He couldn’t really blame Niall for it, though. It was a really hard situation for all of them and he knows that Niall’s never been the one to hold his emotions back unlike him, Liam and .. _Louis_.

Zayn sighed, heavily, just thinking about his friend. He missed him terribly, for sure. But the main thought troubling the back of his mind was the fact they didn’t even know about Louis’ state or condition. Was he even alright? The situation must have hit him the hardest. Not being able to get out of a situation you didn’t want to be in. Zayn couldn’t even imagine what Louis must be enduring. But .. was he even alive?

 _He is. He is!_ He scolded himself for even thinking about it. He would’ve freaked out the second he’d find himself in the same situation. He only wanted to help Louis. If only he could know where he was and get him back. But all he could do was only wish that he was fine and they’d bring him home soon.

Louis, of all people, Zayn thought didn’t deserve all this. His mind went back to the time when Louis had shared his feelings with him. His insecurities, back when he wasn’t so confident with his voice. And after Alan Waters had told them the whole situation - Louis’ meeting with Modest, Triple Strings, One Direction’s six-year contract, Daniel Ferguson’s possible connection with everything - along with whatever was revealed in their meeting with Modest, Zayn regretted ever asking Louis to even consult the management with his problems. _Maybe, things would’ve been different then_.

One split second, Zayn heard a slight commotion around, pulling him out of his trance. His first instinct was to look at Niall, who seemed to be confusedly looking ahead. When Zayn followed his gaze, he saw Paul in a slight panic mode as he walked towards Richard’s office along with Alan Waters with Liam in tow, desperately matching their pace.

“Stay right here,” he told Niall, knowing full well that Niall could go back into another breakdown if he’d follow him to the office. “Please,” Zayn added, making Niall nod, reluctantly.

Giving the younger boy a reassuring nod, Zayn went over to the office. He could see Trevor standing outside, looking at the commotion through the glass walls of the cabin. Zayn noticed Richard’s eyes nervously looking at two members of Paul’s team who were standing behind what seemed like a very complex set-up of gadgets he didn’t even know.

“What’s going on?” Zayn asked, joining Trevor as he saw Richard answer the office phone.

“They’ve called,” Trevor replied before faint and hesitant footsteps could be heard approaching and the two of them turned to find Eleanor. Her sad eyes glancing between the two men as if asking for an answer.

Zayn noticed that Harry was still working on comforting Jay but he sure seemed to have his attention on the cabin, too going by the fact that he kept glancing towards the glass-surrounded office every two seconds.

“We’re trying to trace the call,” Trevor answered, following a huge gap of silence.

Zayn turned to look back into the cabin, seeing Richard speak on the phone with what seemed like pretty concerned features while he occasionally kept glancing towards Waters, Paul and his team for instructions. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was Louis on the other side. He could give anything to listen to his charming voice again.

He kept glancing at Eleanor every few seconds, watching her look ahead impatiently as if she’d just rush inside and snatch the phone from them if given a chance. He could sense the desperation in her posture but he knew he couldn’t do anything to help. The same tense and mysterious atmosphere continued for a few minutes until he saw Liam take the phone.

 

 

 

\-------------------------------------

 

 

 

The man’s creepy fingers ran through Louis’ hair as he stood beside his chair, holding the disposable phone to his ear. Louis didn’t react at all, he just aimlessly stared down at the floor in front of him. He had started feeling a bit dizzy again, but didn’t know if it was due to lack of much nutrition and water or the drug’s effect. He felt the man’s hand still as soon as he sighed before speaking into the phone. Louis wasn’t able to hear the conversation since the man hadn’t put the phone on speaker but Louis didn’t care. He didn’t want to hear their fake promises and pitiful sorry’s anymore.

“Hello?” Richard said into the phone in an almost very low tone.

“Richard!” The man exclaimed, his hand moving down to reach the back of Louis’ neck as he turned to look down at him. “Remember me?”

“What the hell are you doing, Ferguson? I never expected this from you,” Richard said as soon as he heard the voice of his once trusted friend.

Daniel only chuckled slightly in response, his fingers subconsciously pressing down against Louis’ skin.

“Neither did I, Griffiths,” he retorted, eyes still trained at the boy in the chair beside him.

There was silence for a few seconds before Richard spoke again.

“What are you doing to Louis? You don’t have anything against him, just let him go and we can sort this all out. You know we can,” Richard coaxed, hoping his friend hadn’t turned into a complete psychopath to not listen. Daniel’s fingers stilled once again as he tried to listen to what Richard was saying. “What do you have against Modest?” Richard asked again.

“Everything, Richard. You had a hand in taking everything that was mine. This is the least I can do to avenge that,” Daniel answered, in a tone that felt so cold and unfazed.

“Why do you even want Modest? Is this because we didn’t agree to work with you?” Daniel scoffed at Richard’s words.

“Oh, definitely not, Richard. In fact, I was glad that you didn’t work with me. At least, I could do something on my own without having to depend on others,” Daniel quipped, ending with a slight chuckle again.

“Daniel, let Louis go. Please,” Richard said again in an almost desperate tone. “He isn’t meant to be in this thing between us. Come on, I know you can’t be this inhuman. Just let him go. We’ll sort it out. Whatever it is, we’ll sort it out,” he added, hoping he could convince him but it didn’t quite seem to work.

“Nice try, Richard,” Daniel retorted, once the other was done speaking. “Getting down to business, that isn’t what I want.”

“Then, what do you want? What do you have against him? Against us?” Richard asked, his voice raising a bit with impatience.

“Calm down, I don’t like that tone of yours,” Daniel said, placing his hand on Louis’ shoulder. “I have nothing against your boy, Richard, to be honest. I either want your management under my name or I want it to go down to dust. Either way, I think you get what I have is against your management. _Modest_. It doesn’t really seem to be that modest, though.”

“And why do you want it under your name?” Richard asked, confusedly, a few seconds later.

“There’s so much you pretend you don’t know, Griffiths,” Daniel said, moving away from Louis’ chair to sit down opposite him. “But I know that you know everything.” Daniel shifted his eyes to look at Louis, who looked back without any hint of hope in his eyes this time. It was like he had completely given up on anything and everything and it satisfied him. The fact that he could do some damage to someone important to Modest. And he was actually winning, because he had never really thought he would succeed.

“Is this about your son?” Richard, finally, asked after a lot of seconds of silence and Daniel’s mind almost softened at the thought before going back to it’s cold nature.

“I knew that you knew everything,” he said again, smiling creepily as he held his eyes at Louis’ fear-stricken and exhausted face.

“Why are you doing this for that? Just because we didn’t sign with him as an artist?” Richard questioned in a raised tone that angered Daniel more, his fingers clutching the chair’s armrest in a death grip. “Don’t tell me it’s because of that.”

“It is, Richard,” Daniel said a second later. “It is. You always figure everything out.”

“You’re out of your mind, Daniel,” Richard said in disbelief. “You can’t blame me for your son not having a stage presence! He didn’t qualify the criteria we needed!”

“Stage presence. It’s always about the fucking stage presence, isn’t it? That’s all you want, don’t you?” Daniel mocked in despise. “That’s why all your stupid artists are nothing more than pretty faces with _stage presence_. You ruined his career, you know that, Richard? He wanted to be a singer. He wanted to just sing for the rest of his life! But you fucking ruined his whole damn career because no one accepted a Modest reject! And, at that moment, I decided I’d get your whole management down. And I will do that, I have more than a single way to do it. Now, you either give me all the documents, Louis signs his share and I set him free or I’ll make sure I ruin him to his core and you won’t be able to do anything except just sit in that office of yours and regret your own pathetic decisions. What do you choose, then?”

“No, Daniel. Don’t do this, please. You don’t have to do this. We can fix it. I- I can fix it. I can still make your son’s life. I promise, I’ll make sur—“

“It’s too late to fix anything now, Richard. You should’ve thought about it before you rejected him like a little piece of shit,” Daniel said, standing up from his chair before grabbing the gun from Carter. Louis swallowed, thickly, watching in panic as Daniel walked over to him, placing the gun’s muzzle against his forehead while another hand held his head in place so he couldn’t move away. Although scared out of his wits, he remained quiet because he didn’t want to pathetically plead again. “I give you ten seconds to choose, Richard. And if you don’t, then I’ll kill Louis. Right now. And even you’ll lose control over half of Modest.”

“You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t kill him,” Richard said, shaking his head and hoping he was right.

“Don’t think I’m joking, Richard. I have Louis here with me and I have a gun to his head. All I need to do is pull the trigger. Choose,” Daniel said again, his grip on the gun unwavering even a bit. “Ten. Nine.”

“No, wait! Wait, Daniel, no! You can’t do this! We can talk. We can talk about th—“

“Choose, Richard. Or you’ll run out of time again,” Daniel interrupted. “Five. Four.”

Daniel gripped the gun tighter, removing the safety of the weapon while Louis whimpered, closing his eyes in distress and fear.

“Three. Two. On—“

“Wait! Wait, we’ll do it! I’ll do it. I’ll- I’ll give you the papers just .. don’t do anything to him, please,” Richard exclaimed, hurriedly, hoping he had saved Louis since he didn’t hear a gunshot. “Please,” he added in a mere whisper.

“That’s good,” Daniel quipped, retrieving the gun and handing it back to Carter, making Louis open his eyes in disbelief, breathing heavily as he shook worse than before. Daniel could see the way his fists were clenched, body slightly stiffened to stop the tremors in his body. “I know we could’ve done everything in an easier way, Richard but you don’t seem to like it that way. How much more time do you need?”

“A c-couple of days,” Richard answered, hesitantly, and it seemed more like a question than an answer.

“I hope you make it on time now, Richard. Because I have given you over ten days already,” Daniel said, his hand reaching for Louis’ hair again, making him flinch. “And it seems like your boy is really eager to go home. He isn’t liking it here, I guess.” Daniel chuckled, roughly patting Louis’ head.

“Can I talk to him?” Richard asked, immediately.

“Why do you think I’d let you do that?” Daniel asked back.

“You’ve put him through enough already, Daniel. Just let me talk to him for a few minutes, that’s the least you can do,” Richard said in a softer, concerned tone and Daniel considered it before sighing.

“Go ahead,” he said, holding Louis’ tired face up and steady and placing the phone against his ear.

“Louis?” Louis heard Richard say and his mind overcame with sadness again. But he remained silent. He didn’t even want to talk to them anymore. “Louis?” Richard called again, making Louis look down again, a fresh set of tears streaming down his cheeks.

He clenched his fists tighter, his now grown fingernails painfully digging into his own skin but he didn’t care. He knew they wouldn’t do anything. He knew he was on his own. At least, that’s what he had convinced himself of.

“Louis, don’t worry. You’ll be okay. I don’t know if you’re even listening but .. we’re getting you back, Louis. You just need to hang on for a few more hours. We’re going to bring you home, you’ll be alright. Please, be okay until then,” Richard said and Louis continued crying without speaking a word and all Richard could hear were his low sniffles and cries. “Talk to me, Louis,” Richard said again. “Please. Please, let me know you’re there. Let me know you’re fine.”

Louis’ crying didn’t stop neither did Richard’s desperate pleas to get him to talk for a few seconds until Richard stopped talking and Louis heard one heart-warming voice that only made him want to cry more.


	18. SIXTEEN

“Louis?” Liam said, softly, into the phone and Louis’ breath almost hitched at the familiar voice. “Lou, it’s me. It’s me, Liam. I—“ Liam trailed off, not finding the right words to say.

He could hear his friend’s sobs from the other side, making him feel worse. On one hand, he was glad that Louis was alive but on the other hand, even his cries sounded so miserable to him. Liam, patiently, waited for a few seconds. Waited for Louis to, at least, respond. But he wasn’t met with one.

“Lou, please, talk to me,” he said again, feeling tears form in his own eyes. “Please? Louis, are you there?”

This time, Louis wanted to talk. He really did. But he couldn’t get himself too. He felt as if he was running out of breath, choking on his own cries while the shivers continued through his body.

“Louis? Mate, please talk to me. Please,” Liam tried again. All he wanted to do was hear Louis’ voice. Just one little sound to know he was listening to him.

Louis cried harder, every time he heard his name being called. It gave him a warm but creepy feeling at the same time. Because he didn’t know if he’d even see them again. If he’d even talk to them gain. He didn’t want himself to sound so pathetic and miserable if it was the last time he was going to talk to Liam. But he, finally, managed to. Eventually.

“Li-am,” he whispered, his voice cracking due to lack of water and much use.

“Louis,” Liam said, almost relieved but it vanished when he sensed the pain in his voice. He knew Louis had been through a lot but never did he even think Louis would sound so broken and vulnerable. “Are you alright?” He asked out of concern, although he knew he shouldn’t have.

Louis didn’t want to answer. He knew he wasn’t alright. He knew he wasn’t fine. But he also knew how Liam or any of the boys could feel if he told them the truth. He couldn’t even imagine how his mum, his sisters and El might be doing. He squeezed his eyes shut, letting tears spill out again helplessly.

“Louis?” He heard Liam say and cried more at his voice. “Louis, you’ll be fine. We’re going to get you out soon. Paul is working on it. You’ll be home, Lou. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry,” the younger boy pleaded, letting a tear roll down his cheek as he felt his own heart break at the sound of Louis crying.

Louis took in a long breath, trying to hold himself together again as he coughed slightly.

“Help me, Liam. Please help me,” he, pathetically, begged unable to hold it in anymore. “I- I don’t want to stay here. I w-want to come home. Ple-ease,” he cried, making Liam feel a heavy weight on his chest knowing he couldn’t help his friend.

“We’re getting you out, Louis. Soon. You won’t have to stay there anymore. They’re working on it, I’m telling you,” Liam tried to convince him again but Louis didn’t know if he could trust those words.

Sure, he could trust Liam. But he didn’t know if it was Liam who spoke those words or the management or someone else had asked him to say that just so Louis would keep his hopes up. And he continued crying, unable to control it anymore.

“Louis, they’re sorting it out. They’re sorting out all the deals. Just some more time and you’ll be home. Please be fine. It’s just some more time, Louis,” Liam encouraged but Louis didn’t really have any more faith left in him.

“I d-didn’t sign an-nythi-ing, Liam. Th-They keep asking m-me about s-some contract. I- I didn’t—“

“I know, Louis. I know,” Liam interrupted, swallowing down the lump in his throat. “I know what’s going on, I jus—“

“B-But my na-name is on t-the paper, I- I didn’t s-sign anyt-thing, I di-didn’t,” Louis said again, unable to speak anymore as he kept hiccupping due to the excessive crying.

The next second, Louis coughed as if he’d throw up and the phone was pulled away from his ear, Liam’s desperate calls being the last thing he heard. He felt a hand on his back, making him flinch instinctively but then a bottle was pressed to his lips again. A couple of sips were all he could take before he stopped to breathe in some air, making the water spill onto his T-shirt.

Louis felt sick again, suffocated and unable to breathe. He only wanted to get out of this situation. And hearing Liam’s voice did nothing but add to his desperation. Louis closed his eyes, not wanting to open them ever again. But he wasn’t that fortunate.

A hand grabbed his jaw, making him open his eyes as he was forced to look up again and meet Daniel’s eyes. Looking into Louis’ lost and broken blue orbs, Daniel could swear he almost saw his son. But that didn’t affect him long.

“You didn’t sign a contract?” Daniel asked, his grip tightening over Louis’ jaw.

“No,” Louis whispered in response, trying to squirm under his grip so he could look away.

“Then, why is _Triple Strings_ registered under your name, hm?” He asked again, digging his fingers against Louis’ skin to keep him from moving.

“I don’t kn-know, I d-don’t know,” Louis replied, shaking his head as much as Daniel’s grip allowed.

Daniel’s eyes, calculatively, looked over Louis’ features that reflected only distress and pain. Dropping his hand from the boy’s jaw, he leant forward, taking hold of Louis’ bound wrists once again, making him whimper at the pain in his fingers.

“Why would Modest register a part of it’s management under your name without your consent?” He asked and Louis shook his head again.

“I don’t know,” he said, his hoarse voice barely a whisper this time and Daniel clenched his jaw.

“Stop pretending you don’t know anything!” Daniel exclaimed, pressing down on Louis’ fingers again and he cried out in pain.

“No. No, I’m not lying!” Louis rushed out of pain while weakly trying to move his hand away.

“So, you’re management was so generous to you? Mind explaining why?” Daniel asked, finally, loosening his grip on Louis’ hand.

“I do-don’t know a-anything. Believe me,” Louis begged, crying as he felt his body shiver involuntarily. He knew he’d need that drug again but, at the same time, didn’t want it.

“Oh, Louis. Your fucking management loves to pamper worthless underdogs like you, don’t they? All those people with talent are just shoved away and talentless shits like you are thrown into limelight! Have you ever even thought of all those deals Modest reject only to favour One Direction?” Daniel exclaimed, making Louis frown as he tried to understand what he was trying to say. “And your stupid band doesn’t even know how to remain faithful to it, do you? I know One Direction’s contract with Syco expires in three years. What are you going to do after that, Louis? Who’ll even buy your music?”

Louis looked away, not wanting to listen to him anymore because it hurt him. But Daniel wasn’t going to have it that way. He leant forward, dangerously close to Louis’ face, making sure he heard every word. Louis’ eyes shot open when he felt Daniel wrap his hand around his ring finger on the left hand, swallowing thickly as his heart beat faster.

“Tell me, Louis. Tell me about your plans for when your band splits. What are you planning to do?” He asked again, eyes glaring at Louis with intense despise.

Louis whimpered, turning to look at the man in front of him with pleading eyes that didn’t really seem to affect him.

“Is Modest thinking of increasing your role in the management?” Daniel asked, his hand slowly curling Louis’ finger outwards like Carter had previously done.

Louis shook his head, shivering violently as he tried to contain his cries again. He didn’t know anything and didn’t know how to convince these maniacs. They’d hurt him anyway but the slowly intensifying pain in his finger was unbearable. Louis clenched his teeth to hold himself from screaming as he hunched forward.

“No, I don’t know. I don’t know!” Louis exclaimed, crying when Daniel released his finger and he was pretty sure he had sprained this one too.

“Why are you doing this to me? What did I even do to you?” Louis yelled in between heavy sobs as he tugged at his bound limbs in a weak attempt.

“Why would I answer your question, Louis? You didn’t answer mine,” Daniel retorted, making Louis look up at him with pain-filled, bloodshot eyes. He hated the man’s very existence though he didn’t know him and had just met him a few minutes ago.

“You’re a fucking psychopath!” Louis exclaimed, feeling his insides reel with what seemed like a mixture of pain and anger, his eyes following as he saw Daniel take the gun from Carter again.

“Say that again,” Daniel threatened, placing the weapon right in the middle of Louis’ forehead.

But, this time, Louis wasn’t really frightened by it. Even if he’d pull the trigger, Louis would be more than glad to be put out of his suffering. Daniel frowned seeing Louis’ almost unfazed features.

“Kill me,” Louis whispered. “Just fucking kill me, I don’t want to live this pathetic life,” he said.

Louis would’ve closed his eyes to prepare himself for the shot if he didn’t have noticed that Daniel hadn’t even removed the gun’s safety. He knew the difference. They wouldn’t kill him. Richard was right. _They wouldn’t kill him. Because they needed him_. They needed him alive to get Modest.

And almost as if he were paranoid, Louis let out a chuckle, surprising everyone in the room. Daniel creased his eyebrows, nudging the gun against Louis’ skin as his grip tightened on the black metal.

“Wonder what you found so funny,” he said, making Louis look up at him.

“You won’t kill me,” Louis said, a small smile still on his bruised lips.

“What makes you think I won’t?” Daniel mocked, pressing the gun further against the boy’s forehead.

Louis finally found some confidence in him. It was almost like his mind wasn’t blocked anymore and he was able to connect all the vague points he knew until now.

“The fact that you haven’t removed the safety yet,” Louis answered, swallowing the little moisture in his dry throat. “You can’t kill me,” he stated as he watched Daniel retrieve the gun, a small frown set on his face. “You need me, don’t you? You cannot kill me because you need Modest. And you won’t get half of it without me.”

Louis didn’t have time to register before Daniel’s fist hit his jaw, making his head snap to the side as he coughed, squeezing his eyes shut to wallow in the pain in his jaw and lips. He could taste the blood in his mouth as he winced at the unbearable sting. Letting out a weak cry when his face was grabbed and forced to look ahead, Louis opened his teary eyes.

“I can’t kill you doesn’t mean that I can’t hurt you enough to make you wish you were dead, Louis. You’re forgetting who’s in charge. I promised your management I wouldn’t hurt you further but you really leave us no choice,” Daniel said as Louis tried to move his face out of Daniel’s grip.

Daniel removed his hand from his face but moved it to the little finger on Louis’ left hand, making him let out a frightened whimper again as he wrapped his hand around Louis’ small finger. Louis shut his eyes again, crying for all he was worth as he felt Daniel’s hot and angry breath on him.

He let out a gut-wrenching scream when he felt his finger being bent backwards again, the pain only intensifying with each passing second, unable to hold them in any longer.

Another few seconds of the agonizing process and Daniel finally released it, making Louis scream more at the pain that followed. He almost couldn’t feel his whole hand now. He couldn’t move it, it wasn’t in his control. And the horrific pain shooting from his fingers was the only thing he could concentrate on.

“You’re not really that important to me, Louis,” Daniel continued, his face close to Louis’, making the boy try to cower away. “All I need for those signatures is your drugged mind and a functioning right hand,” he added, patting Louis’ clammy cheek as he flinched away, still crying and recovering from the pain.

 _We’ll get you out, Louis,_ Liam’s voice repeated in his head, _soon._

 _You just need to hang on a few more hours,_ Richard had said.

Although, Louis couldn’t completely trust it, he still did. Somewhere, deep inside him. He knew that if Liam had really meant it then they would get him out. He knew Liam wasn’t one to give false hopes. Especially, at times like these. But he also knew that there was no way Modest would give up all their deals. How could they even do it? In a few hours?

It didn’t make sense to Louis. But all he knew was that Liam has said just some more time. That was the only little thing that could, possibly, keep him going even if it wasn’t true. What if they did find out about the location? And they were going to get him out without having to give up Modest? This made a little bit of sense to him. Why would both Richard and Liam assure him the same thing?

When Louis opened his eyes, he could still see Daniel looking at him. Louis hated the man already. He wished he could just get away from him, as far as he could. But that wasn’t an option he had. In fact, there was no option he had except let them do whatever they wanted with him. But in his head, he didn’t want them to win. Even if it meant him suffering more.

“You won’t get away with this,” he said, his voice was scratchy. He needed water, food too. Daniel frowned, his hand tightening over Louis’ cheek as his eyes glared at Louis with burning intensity. “You won’t win,” he added, despite his mind screaming at him to shut up.

Daniel let out a bitter chuckle, his nails almost hurting Louis before he forcefully kicked Louis’ chair, making it topple over to the side. Louis’ head came in contact with the hard  concrete and all he could do was whimper. He didn’t have any more strength to yell or scream. Closing his eyes, he cried as a foot kept raining kicks against his gut.

Louis tried to curl into himself but it was of no use. He was bound to the fucking chair, defenseless as he gave up on everything and stopped squirming. When everything stopped, he heard footsteps retrieve and a few approach but he didn’t really bother to open his eyes. Blood trickled down the side of his head and it hurt like hell. But he just cried, hot tears of agony streaming down his face at all the pain he felt in his whole body.

A pair of hands released him from the ropes and pulled him away from the chair while he didn’t fight. He just let them. A wet cloth was pressed against the wound on his forehead, making him wince at the sting. He was made to lie on the cold ground but he wasn’t complaining as long as he’d be left alone.

When the hands left him, he grabbed his pounding head, curling in as much as he could. Louis lost control over his body and he couldn’t do anything to stop trembling. Someone pulled his unresponsive form closer to the wall before he felt a cold metal wrap around his right wrist. He tried to move it but he couldn’t, opening his eyes to see they had cuffed his hand to a pole in the corner.

He heard the footsteps leave and turned his head around to see them leave, closing the door. They hadn’t drugged him, neither did they tie him up to force him in the same position. And, for the first time, Louis wished that they had. Because, at least, that helped him stop his pathetic shivering. But, now, nothing helped him as he was left to suffer in his pitiful state.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave you guys an update so soon, so please love me! Lol .. just kidding. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Also, what did you guys think about the plot twist revealed in the previous chapter (if you know what I'm talking about)?? Was it predictable?


	19. A/N

I'm so so so so so so sooooo sorry guys .. I haven't updated in, like, forever. I have been busy with a lot of work plus exams in our college. Well, now that I've finally been able to take a breather, you guys could actually expect another update. Thank you so much for being so patient and sweet. It feels so good to read your comments and opinions. I love you guys so much! :)


	20. SEVENTEEN

“Louis? Louis are you alri—“ Liam trailed off, looking at the phone receiver in his hand, a weird feeling settling down in his gut.

“What happened?” Alan Waters was the first one to ask, breaking the silent trance.

“They hung up,” Liam whispered, placing the phone back on the desk as he sunk down to his knees with his face in his hands.

“Liam? What happened?” Paul asked, this time, going over to help him up into a chair but Liam shook his head.

“He sounded so .. so bad. Vulnerable. Broken,” he whispered, sniffling back a few tears as he looked up at Paul. “Get him out. Get him out soon,” he pleaded, holding the older man’s arm. “He was .. h-he was asking me f-for help and I couldn’t do anything. Just ge-get him out. Please.” Liam cried while Paul rubbed his back in an attempt to calm him down.

“Did you get it?” Alan asked the two men who were busy with the job of tracing the call.

“We just need a few more seconds,” the person, who was busy typing something with his eyes intent on the monitor, replied. “We gotta pinpoint the exact location.”

“Liam, he’ll be fine,” Paul assured again, trying to help the boy stand but he declined shaking his head.

“Bring him home. Just bring him home. Please,” he pleaded, his chocolate brown eyes looking at Paul, devoid of any emotions other than sorrow and helplessness.

“I promise you, Liam. I will. Just .. just, please try to gather yourselves together. We can’t break like this. At least, not now,” the older man said, helping a reluctant Liam up from the ground.

“Mr. Payne, please. I assure you we’ll help him out of there,” Alan told the boy. “We’ve got the location,” he added, turning to Richard before motioning towards the phone. “Paul,” he said, eyeing Liam before giving him a reassuring nod.

With that, Liam was led out by Paul, leaving him in a state of confusion. Were they going to do something? Did they have a plan? What was happening?

He had no idea. All he knew was that his mind seemed blank but heavy as he saw the familiar faces of his bandmates and Louis’ family. He couldn’t face them, he knew. He couldn’t tell them the way Louis sounded, the way he was being treated.

Closing his eyes, Liam sat down in one of the chairs in the reception , rubbing his face with his palms. All he wanted to was see Louis. He could give anything to see his friend again. But he also knew that when Paul promises something, he’d do it. At least, give his everything to try to do it. And that was enough reassurance to hold him together for another few hours, probably.

But he knew that if they didn’t hear from Louis again, it wouldn’t be meaning any good news. He remembered the broken and unused voice of his. The way it seemed filled with fear and hopelessness. It had been almost over two weeks since he hadn’t been home. And Liam couldn’t even imagine what Louis might be enduring.

Looking up for a split second, he noticed the hustle inside the cabin. Everyone in a state of chaos, as if trying to execute something. Something big. Something Liam and his bandmates weren’t aware of.

 

 

 

\---------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis flinched, feeling a small pinch on his wrists and realised a presence around him. Squinting his eyes, Louis winced feeling a bright light pierce his vision. Closing them again, he tried to shift when he realised he was being held down by a pair of hands. Instinctively, he tried to move his hands but couldn’t, and it finally hit him that his hands were cuffed behind his back.

Panic rising inside his mind, he shot his eyes open, trying to figure out what was happening to him. A hand patted his clammy cheek, shushing him lowly which made him flinch at first. He could feel his breathing getting slow and unsteady while his movements going out of control and he couldn’t get his own self to listen.

“Ssh, it’s okay,” the voice said and he recognised it as Carter’s. Realising he was still in this damned place and wasn’t dead yet, Louis wanted to cry again. But he couldn’t. He had probably run out of tears and energy to do anything. Even his body hurt with even a little movement.

Carter’s warm thumb kept moving back and forth against his relatively cold and sweaty forehead. Louis whimpered weakly, feeling the metal of the handcuffs dig into his already damaged skin. He wanted to move as far away from these people as he could but he had no choice.

He knew they had just drugged him again since his mind was foggy and hurt again. He knew it was the same drug’s effects. He knew it was the same damned drug he had been depending on for however long he had been here. But, for some reason, this time, he wasn’t sleepy. He just didn’t feel good. And he didn’t know what they had done differently.

He heard faint footsteps, seeing a blurred pair of shoes approach his form on the floor and he knew who it was. Carter removed his hand and it was immediately replaced with Daniel’s, making Louis cringe internally.

“Be happy, Louis,” he said, his fingers slowly gripping the boy’s greasy hair. “Your management’s finally caved in.”

Louis frowned, feeling confused. Was he going home? Should he be happy?

“All you have to do is sign the papers. And you’re free,” Daniel added, his hand sliding out of Louis’ hair before going to his forehead in an attempt to check if he was fine.

Louis remained silent, closing his eyes as he felt Daniel retrieve his hand. A small rush of cool air struck his face implying the man wasn’t close to him anymore. Carter scrunched his eyebrows upon seeing Daniel walk towards a table in the room. Further, confused when he saw Daniel pick up a few more syringes and hand them to him.

“What are you doing?” Carter asked, frowning as he looked down at his hand.

“You’ll know,” Daniel replied, vaguely, before starting to walk out confusing Carter more.

“Wait,” Carter said, making the older man stop in his tracks. “You aren’t saying we .. give him more, are you?”

Daniel smirked, turning over is shoulder to look at Carter before looking down at the boy lying a few feet away.

“We can’t give him anymore,” Carter argued again, managing to annoy Daniel more as he sighed. “He’ll die of overdoses if we do so. We’ve given him too much already,” he added, watching as Daniel turned to face him.

“Why do you care?” He asked in an intimidating manner. “Why do you care, hm?” He asked again, louder, when Carter didn’t reply.

“Because this .. this wasn’t in my contract,” Carter, finally, replied. “We weren’t supposed to kill him. We _aren’t_ supposed to kill him. The management’s ready to comply, right? Why do we have do this, then?”

“Do not question me, Carter. You aren’t in charge. Let me do what I have to.” Carter didn’t reply as he remained silent at Daniel’s raised tone. He knew whatever was happening was wrong but he actually had no say anymore. Neither did he have one before.

 

 

 

\------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Louis’ vision focused in and out as he was being led out of the room he had been in. Finally on his feet, he understood the pain he was in. His headache killing him along with the several other parts that were aching in his body. The bullet-wound in his leg hadn’t healed at all and his bare feet only dragged along the dusty ground as the two pairs of hands pulled his bound form along.

He had no idea where he was being taken or for what. But this time he wasn’t scared anymore. He wasn’t afraid of death at all and would be extremely happy even if he were to die today. At least, he’d be in a better place. A place better than the damned warehouse he’d been in for so long.

Groaning when even the dim evening sunlight blinded his vision, Louis squinted his eyes trying to adjust to the surrounding and finally finding a van outside. Blood rushed to his ears, realising they were taking him away from here. And he didn’t want to. Not if it wasn’t to go home. Struggling against the hand holding him in a weak and pathetic attempt, Louis tugged at the cuffs holding his wrists in place, feeling the skin tear under the metal. But he couldn’t care less.

“Where are you taking me?” He said, his voice coming out in an unintentional whisper. “Where are you taking me?” He asked again, louder this time, but no one really seemed to care.

Louis’ breathing became more unsteady as he tried to escape but to no avail. He knew it was all useless but he had to try. He couldn’t give up, could he? Not after Liam had assured him.

“No, I don’t want to go anywhere,” he said, weakly, as they almost reached the door of the vehicle. “No,” Louis yelled. Tried to. But his pleas went unheard. “No!” He managed to yell with his scratchy and hoarse voice as he was pushed into the van.

 He felt a pair of hands hold him down against the floor of the van as a few more people got in, he couldn’t see the faces of.

“Shh, shh,” he heard a voice, making him close his eyes as a hand patted his forehead. “Shh, you’re okay,” the person said again. “You’ll be okay. Your management has complied, Tomlinson.”

“No,” Louis whispered again, in his mind he had a feeling he was being lied to.  “Leave me alone. Leave me alone, please. I don’t want to go anywhere, please, no,” he cried, tears spilling from his eyes again.

“Calm down. Don’t you want to go home?” The voice asked again, it was Carter, Louis recognised this time.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. Leave me alone. Just leave me on my own,” he cried, pathetically, again although he knew he had no say.

Louis whimpered, feeling a familiar sharp sting in his upper arm, shutting his eyes tighter. His cries died down a few seconds later as his mind was overcome by the drug again. The hand brushed a few strands of his greasy hair away from his forehead before he could feel the vehicle start to move and he knew he was left with no choice. He knew he couldn’t even decide if he was really going home or they were going to just kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I know.. But I hope you enjoyed the update. I know its been so frickin' since I've last been active and I feel terrible for that. Sorry for the wait guys and I really do appreciate all your love, support and patience..


	21. EIGHTEEN

Opening the car door, Richard nervously stepped onto the stray forest grass as his eyes remained trained on the stranded warehouse in front of him. His fingers gripped the briefcase tighter as he noticed two of the men standing near the entrance. He knew he just had to hand over the papers and Louis would be out but again, he had an unsettling feeling that he was called alone.

He knew Paul and Waters were on their way with the team. They’d be here soon but he would have to make sure things were fine until then. Because he knew he couldn’t trust Daniel. No one knew what was on his mind. One of the men checked Richard for any weapons before the other one pointed the barrel of his gun to his head and he was asked to follow the two of them.

It was dark inside the warehouse, barely enough light for proper vision. But Richard could still make out dark figures surrounding them as they walked to the center. He was made to sit in a chair, a table in front of him while he didn't have time to look at the other faces since they had closed the door and it was dark again.

He set the briefcase on top of the table before a small light flickered on above the table, illuminating the little area. This made Richard more nervous as he noticed the number of armed men around. His eyes meeting Daniel's, who stood beside the chair opposite to the one he was sitting on. And his eyes went wide looking at the person in it.

"Louis?" He whispered, almost in shock as he could see the obvious bad state the boy was in.

Louis' head immediately snapped up at the voice his blurry mind had recognised and he tugged at the handcuffs still restricting his wrists. Being blindfolded and gagged, he really had no other option but to struggle. But even that hurt. And he didn't care.

A pair of hands held his body against the chair before the thick cloth blinding his eyes was pulled off. And seeing Richard, Louis only struggled more, feeling trails of blood slowly trickle down from his wrist due to the metal. The grip on his upper body tightened before he felt Daniel pet his hair, shushing him lowly. But Louis' only concern was why Richard was here.

"Calm down, Louis," Daniel said in a low tone as his fingers ran through Louis' hair and the sound of his voice made him flinch. With eyes trained on Richard, Louis fought more seeing a gun aimed at Richard's head but his sight was blocked by Daniel as the man leant down closer to Louis' face, making him try to back away. His fingers tightening over Louis' head, forcing the boy to look at him. However, Louis once again turned his gaze to Richard when Daniel moved his face beside his. "Stop struggling, Louis. Wouldn't want me to hurt you even when you're about to die today, would you?" He whispered, making Louis' eyes go wide.

He turned to look at Daniel in disbelief, shaking his head away when the man moved his hand to pat his cheek. With a weird and unsettling feeling in his gut, Louis realised by the look on Daniel's face that he was going to die today. They were going to kill him, he didn't know about Richard. But he was going to die. And his head started hurting again just by the thought of it.

The management hadn’t complied. He knew they were lying. He had known all along that there was no way they would give up whole of Modest for him. But, again, why would Richard even bother to come if they didn’t have a negotiation of some kind? Just to watch him die?

A tear rolling down his cheek, Louis turned to look at Richard again before his eyes went to the briefcase that was situated on the table. Frowning slightly, Louis couldn't help but wonder what was inside. Money? Or Modest's documents? But if Richard was here to hand them over then why were they going to kill him. He couldn't understand anything but his mind only kept returning to the same point.  _He was going to die._ He tried to remain as calm as possible but his situation wasn't one that would let him. Finally managing to snap out of his trance, Louis paid attention to the words being exchanged between Daniel and Richard.

"There has to be something you can do, Ferguson. What would you even do with all of Modest?" Richard asked, his words making Daniel chuckle. "We can settle for a negotiation, can't we?"

Daniel hummed slightly, his hand going back to Louis' hair, making him flinch out of fear. 

"I'm afraid, negotiations aren't going to help either of you out of this, Richard," he replied, his face boring no expression at all. "It's either all of Modest or none of it. You know the price otherwise, I hope." He patted Louis' hair, making him close his eyes. "You did what you had to, Richard. You ruined my son's life and I have the complete right to do so with yours. Now, this is the way I know. What have you decided, then? Will you be cooperating or .. would you want me to end his suffering?"

Opening his eyes again, Louis looked at Richard with a slightly blurry vision. He was still under the influence of the drugs that had been forced into him earlier but could, well enough, understand the terrified look on the older man's face. As if even he senses something to be wrong. And what wasn't wrong?  _What isn't wrong about this situation?_ Louis thought. Whether Richard would give up all of Modest or negotiate or do nothing, he was going to die anyway. And he knew it. But there was no way he could tell Richard. And there was no way he could save himself.

"C'mon Richard, be quick," Daniel said again a few seconds later, retrieving his hand from Louis' hair. "I haven't got whole day."

Richard couldn't help but finally look at Louis again. His almost broken and terrified state. He was supposed to stall Daniel and his men until Paul arrived with the team. But he didn't know if he had the will to see Louis suffer anymore. 

However, his fear doubled seeing one of the men hold out a box to Daniel, who picked up a white syringe from it. Breaking Louis' trance, Daniel rolled the end of Louis' sleeve, holding his arm in place before placing the needle against his skin. 

Louis whimpered, not wanting another dose as he weekly struggled again but to no avail. Richard's eyes widened, finally realising what Daniel was trying to do as he started to protest.

"No, Daniel. What are you doing?" He said, feeling the gun forced further against his head as he felt scared to make any move.

"Get to some conclusion, Richard. And fast," Daniel said, his eyes not moving from Louis' terrified and distressed face. "I can assure you that, by the number of doses he's already taken since his stay with us, he will surely die with only a couple more or so."

Louis shook his head, letting another tear roll down his cheek as the cloth forced in his mouth muffled his pathetic attempts to convince Daniel otherwise.

"Don't disappoint him, Richard. Come on," Daniel said again, the end of the needle now pricking Louis' skin, making him squeeze his eyes shut in pain.

"Alright, fine," Richard finally said a few seconds later, making Daniel smirk but his grip still remained intact. "I will give you the papers. I will. Just don't do anything to him. Don't do anything to him."

"Now, wasn't that easier Richard?" Daniel quipped but, the very next second, pushed the needle into Louis' skin, making him let out a muffled scream as he felt the familiar flow of toxics in his bloodstream.

"No! You said you wouldn't do anything. I told you I'd give it all to you!" Richard protested, the man beside his chair holding him back with the gun still placed against his head.

“So, you’re ready to give it all up?” Daniel said, ignoring Richard’s words, throwing the empty syringe to the floor.

“Yes,” Richard answered, his eyes going back to Louis before he saw Daniel slide the briefcase towards himself, smiling as he did so.

Opening the case, Daniel carefully checked through the papers inside, his smile growing wider with every second. A few minutes of the process before he finally removed a set of papers, placing them on the table in front of Louis before turning towards him.

Louis whimpered when he felt a sharp pain in his wounded wrists and fingers while his hands were being released. But as soon as they were free, his left hand was cuffed to the left arm of the chair while Daniel grabbed his right hand, forcing a pen between his fingers. Pulling Louis’ reluctant arm, Daniel placed his hand on the table such that the pen was right above the dotted line.

“Sign,” Daniel muttered against Louis’ ear but Louis felt reluctant.

He knew he was going to die anyway. Then why was he supposed to sign on the papers? Everything happening was confusing him now. In his head, nothing made sense. If he'd sign the papers, he'd die. If he didn't, he'd die too. 

Louis closed his eyes, wishing this wasn't happening. Wishing all of this was a dream. For the first time, he wished he was still in the warehouse, still tied to the pole, still drugged out of his mind, still left cold and alone. But it wasn't a dream.

“Sign,” he heard Daniel say again.

Opening his eyes, Louis looked down at the papers in front of him, seeing his name on them. _Louis Tomlinson._  The name he now felt had been ruined. Ruined, because he wasn't the same anymore. How much his life had changed, changed within the past .. ten days? Was he here for ten days? Or more? He didn't even remember.

But, this time, Louis knew what he wanted to do. He had decided what he would do. And, for once, he wasn't going to let these men control him. He knew it was in his hands, whether Daniel could get Modest or not. He could stop that from happening if not anything else. Although, he didn't really know the consequences.

Louis slightly shook his head in protest, not willing to sign on the papers. Surprised, Daniel fixed his glare at the boy, his hand still holding Louis' against his will. Pulling the cloth out of Louis' mouth, Daniel grabbed his face before leaning down until his face was right beside Louis'.

“Say that again,” he threatened in a scary, low tone sending shivers down Louis' spine but he held his calm.

“I won't sign on the papers,” Louis managed to reply with all the strength he could muster in his voice.

Daniel let out a slight, sinister chuckle. Taking Louis by surprise as he felt Daniel's grip tighten on his bruised wrist, making him whimper. 

“You know you won't have another choice, Louis. You're not in control,” he mumbled, his other hand roughly patting Louis' head. “Now, be a good boy and sign the goddamn papers!” Louis flinched at the raise in Daniel's tone.

Tightening his grip around the pen, Louis sucked in a breath before moving his hand back to stab Daniel's hand in a sharp move. However, his attempt failed as Daniel was faster and Louis whimpered at the pain in his already wounded wrist due to Daniel's grip.

“Don't try to act smart, Louis. At least, not in this state of yours,” Daniel said through gritted teeth as he forced Louis' hand onto the table again. Louis could see Richard trying to protest through the corner of his eye, but he was being held back by another guy. “You have no idea what I can do to you, Louis.” Carter's hand replaced Daniel's hold on Louis' right hand before he watched Daniel pick up another syringe from the box.

“No. No, Daniel, no!” Richard said again, seeing the man approach Louis with the syringe again but his protests went unheeded.

“One wrong move and I can make sure you never make it out alive,” he stated in the same cold tone as he placed the needle against Louis' skin. “So you better oblige, Louis or you have no choice. No choice but to die.”

“You're right. I have no choice,” Louis said, his voice weaker than he had intended. “No choice but to die. Because I know you're going to kill me anyway. You want all of Modest and me dead with it, don't yo--” he was interrupted with his own scream as he felt the drug injected into him again.

This time, he could feel himself losing his senses. He could feel his body getting weak. He could feel the way the drug was affecting him. Not in a good way at all. 

“Come on, Louis, sign,” Daniel said again, throwing the syringe away before he picked another one from the box and placed it against Louis' skin again.

Louis looked up at Richard, a set of tears rolling down his face in distress and pain.

“Just sign them, Louis,” Richard said out of concern as he looked back at the boy but Louis shook his head again.

“You don't understand Richard, they're going to kill m--” Louis let out another scream as Daniel injected the drug into him again, managing to pull Louis back into the vulnerable state he was in.

He heard Richard protest again but he felt distant once more. Distant from everything.

“Louis?” He heard Richard's voice, opening his eyes again to see the teary-eyed man in front of him. “Sign. Sign on the papers.”

“I-I won't,” he whispered, still defiant as he passed an apologetic look to Richard. However, it wasn't long before he shut his eyes, more tears spilling out as he felt another sting in his arm.

Louis felt cold again, his body shivering slightly as he felt his breathing seem rigid and unstable. He opened his eyes to find his vision blurry again. He could hear voices, only one voice perhaps.  _Richard._ Louis parted his lips, intending to speak again, to try and explain to Richard what was going on but he felt yet another sting and a sharp pain that accompanied it.

Louis only cried again, running out of energy as he gave up. Gave up, because he knew he was going to die. Because he could feel he was going to die. He could feel himself losing control again, his consciousness slipping from his hands.

“Wait! No, please wait!” Richard interrupted again right before Daniel was ready to inject another one and this did make the mad man stop this time as he turned to look at Richard. “He will sign on the papers. I promise you he will, Ferguson. Just .. don't harm him. Please.” Richard added, making Daniel sigh.

“Alright then, make him sign the papers and I won't touch him,” he said, turning his attention fully towards Richard.

“No,” Louis whispered, looking up again. “Don't believe him, Richard. He's lying, he--” Daniel gestured to one of his men before Louis felt a punch to his stomach, the pain cutting him off from speaking further.

Coughing vigorously, he could hear the two voices arguing again as he bent to a side, throwing up whatever little was left inside him. He could feel a metallic taste in his mouth but didn't dare open his eyes to check because he was sure it was blood. Before he could regain his senses, Louis felt another fist hit his nose this time, the pain returning from his previous wound. He whimpered, letting tears freely fall from his face as he felt a warm liquid trickle down his nose.

“Louis? Louis, listen to me,” he heard a voice, sounding so faint and distant. But he knew it was Richard. Groaning as his face was foreced to look up and ahead, Louis opened his eyes to see Richard's blurry figure. “Sign on the papers, Louis. Please.” He shook his head weakly. “Louis, please. Just sign them.”

“It's a trap,” he whispered in a hoarse voice, feeling the grip over his hand tighten again. “It's a b-bloody trap so you-u could give up .. Mod-est. I'm going to die, Ric-chard. They'll kill me anywa-ay. Don't f-fall for i--” 

“Shh,” Daniel interrupted, petting Louis' head while a hand covered Louis' mouth, preventing him from speaking. Louis, tiredly, moved his eyes to look at Daniel, still able to see the blurry white syringe in his hand. “Listen to Mr. Griffiths, Louis. He's always right,” Daniel said in a mocking tone that Louis didn't like at all.

“Come on,” he heard Carter say as he nudged the boy's hand towards the papers again as the hand retrieved from his mouth.

Louis hesitantly looked at Richard again, his eyes begging Richard to listen to him. Why was Richard trusting these men? How did he even think they'd let him go after they had hurt him so much in front of him.

“Sign the papers, Louis,” Richard said again. “Just sign the damn papers!” He said, raising his tone this time, making Louis close his eyes. “Please, for the sake of your life Louis. Please. I'm telling you to do it.”

Louis shut his eyes tighter, Richard's voice stinging his ears as he tried to block it out, wishing that they'd keep drugging him until he died because he knew it wouldn't take long before that happened.

“Nothing will happen to you, Louis. Please sign the papers. Just do it. Please,” Richard coaxed and Louis gave it a thought for a few seconds before he couldn't take it at all.

Carter gripped his hand tighter and it took him a moment to realise that he wasn't holding the pen properly at all. Forcing his fingers to try and grip it tightly, Louis could feel Carter press his hand against the table, enough for the pen to touch the paper just above the dotted line.

He looked up at Richard again and when the older man have him a reassuring nod, Louis tried to breathe in before he reluctantly started writing on the sheet. His fingers trembling involuntarily as he completed the signature, instantly dropping the pen once finished.

Louis started sobbing once done, Carter still holding his hand after moving it to the chair's armrest. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” he continued whispering, to no one in particular as he gave up, closing his eyes and letting himself be held up only by the cuffs and Carter's hand.

Daniel picked up the papers, a smile of satisfaction on his face as he ran his gaze over Louis' signature before dropping them into the briefcase and closing it. Richard breathed in relief as he kept his gaze trained on Louis, trying to figure out if he was alright but panicked when Daniel snapped his fingers and he saw two of the men close in on Louis.

“No! What are you doing?” Richard tried to oppose, being held back by the man behind him before another cuffed each of his hands to the chair's.

Tugging at the metal bonds, he looked up at Daniel who approached him with a gun in his hand and a smirk on his face.

“You said you wouldn't touch him. You said you wouldn't touch him!” He exclaimed, only making Daniel chuckle in response.

“I am not touching him. As promised,” he joked, playing with the gun in his hands.

“You got all of Modest, Ferguson. What else do you have to do with him?” He asked watching as the two men emptied the syringes one by one into Louis' bloodstream. “Let him go. Let him go, you got what you wanted! Let him go!” Richard yelled but Daniel only laughed, shushing him lowly before placing the gun's barrel against Richard's forehead.

“You'll know soon enough Richard, how it feels like to know everything's going to be ruined.” Richard didn't look away from Louis as he prayed for nothing to happen to Louis. “Well it actually does feel great to have the tables turned.” Daniel retrieved his gun before smiling as he looked down at his former colleague. “Louis was right, you shouldn't have believed me,” he finished, making Richard give him a look mixed with surprise and anger, making him chuckle in delight.

“Sir, we're done,” one of the men said and Daniel patted Richard's shoulder before walking over to a barely awake Louis.

Crouching down to meet his eye, Daniel grabbed Louis' chin, forcing his head up straight. He saw a reflection of his son, looking into the boy's empty eyes before smiling slightly as he patted Louis' cheek with his gun-clad hand.

“I hope that, at least now, you'll realise your worth, Louis,” he said, knowing very well that Louis probably didn't even hear him. The boy was barely conscious, his eyes still open but vision compromised while his skin had turned cold and clammy. “And I hope you rest in peace.” Letting out a weak whimper when Daniel ran his finger over his bruised nose, Louis' head hung low again once the grip left his chin.

His head and eyes heavier than ever, he couldn't see or hear properly, only distant voices that sounded like a muffled echo in his mind. With zero control over his movements, Louis felt like a ragdoll, only able to sit up due to the cuffs restricting him.

He struggled to breathe while his body shivered. He felt cold. Extremely cold. As if he had been locked in some kind of an ice box. Desperately wanting to get out, feeling like a thousand knives stabbing his body. He could hear voices around him, really loud and heavy footsteps that sounded scary. A desperate and concerned voice, as if it was trying to call out to him. He knew his eyes were open, yet he couldn't see. Not even a blurry figure or two. And all of it sacred him.

 _Was this the end? Was he dying?_ He didn't know exactly. But he knew whatever was happening wasn't right. Wasn't good, for sure. But at least he was devoid of all the pain. He tried to speak but couldn't. It was like he had lost his voice. It was as if time had stopped and he was stuck. Stuck in this dark side, forever. He felt suffocated, very much. And it wasn't long before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for ending that way but it's Louis' birthday and I thought of giving you guys an update. Hope this was good. 
> 
> This definitely isn't a chapter I'd prefer to post on his birthday but yeah whatever, Xx


	22. NINETEEN

The silent hospital corridor was suddenly filled with soft but hurried footsteps as she rushed through the halls, looking for a familiar face or two. Reaching an almost end to the long corridor with rooms on either side, Eleanor saw Liam and Niall. Looking up, Liam saw her from the seat he'd been in for hours as she eyed the two of them, clearly noticing the sad looks on their faces, Niall had been crying probably.

“Where is he?” She asked before he could react or say anything.

Liam only turned towards the door and Eleanor went ahead, past where the two of them sat, until she was placing her hand on the door. Looking through the circular glass hole in the door, contemplating her decision, whether she was really ready to see him or not. She couldn’t see much though, Zayn blocking her view of the person on the bed while Jay was already at the bedside, a couple of nurses working around the small place the three of them were.

She finally pushed the door open, breaking the trance in the room as four pairs of eyes fell on her before she looked at Zayn. She recognised the look with which he looked back at her, filled with sadness and sympathy. Everything seemed so terrifying to her, that she wished more than anything that Louis was fine. When Zayn stepped aside, she felt her heart crumble at the sight, her breath hitched in her throat.

Lying on the hospital bed, Louis’ unconscious form was almost as pale as the sheets beneath. Face bruised, nose destroyed, while she saw bandages on several parts of his body. Eleanor could already feel her eyes starting to tear up. Though he wasn’t awake, she could tell how much he was struggling to breathe, slow and forced, evident by the sound the ventilator made every time it pumped air into the tube that had been plastered around his mouth.

All this time, living in the terror of whether he was alive or not seemed nothing compared to seeing him like this, attached to all kinds of medical tubes, a far cry from the Louis she remembered. Tears running down her cheeks, she ran her eyes over the angry bruises on his upper body, some fresh, some old, some fading.

For a brief second, she turned to look at Jay, meeting her eyes that seemed filled with pain, as if she’d been crying since long. Jay being the first one to break the trance, a sob escaping her lips before she turned to look at Louis again, her hand continuously running through his greasy hair.

Taking another step closer to his bed, Eleanor reached out to touch Louis’ hand that seemed unhealthily cold against hers, careful not to even touch his bandaged fingers and the syringe inserted into the back of his hand, connected to the drip. In the next few seconds, she broke down into hysterical cries, her legs giving in but a pair of hands holding her against them.

She didn’t resist as the person gently led her out of the room, only realising it was Zayn after they were out of the room. Her cries continued while she felt him lead her somewhere she didn’t know, and didn’t even attempt to open her eyes to know.

She knew she felt sick at the thoughts running in her mind when she realised Zayn had taken her to the bathroom outside Louis’ room, encouraging her to bend over as she threw up into the sink, Zayn holding her hair back with a hand soothingly rubbing her back. She washed her face once done before crouching down to the floor, crying again.

Concerned, Zayn knelt down in front of her, trying to get her to calm down but it didn’t seem to work. It must’ve been really hard for her to see Louis in his state, he understood. A few seconds later, she wiped her face, clearing her throat slightly before looking up at Zayn.

“Is he going to be okay?” She asked, her voice sounding barely above a whisper, her hand holding Zayn’s arm. “Will he be alright?” She asked louder this time when Zayn didn’t answer, her eyes nervously searching for an answer in his. Yet again, Zayn chose to remain silent, biting his lower lip subconsciously as he sighed. “Zayn? Is he alright? What happened to him?” She, frantically, asked, desperately clutching his shirt.

“He’s in a coma,” Zayn, finally, spoke, letting out a heavy sigh before looking at her again.

She seemed shocked at his words, a fresh set of tears blurring her vision as she looked at Zayn with a surprised look on her face. “W-wh .. what?” She managed to exclaim, Zayn nodding in response. “How is it .. how is it possible? What happe— what happened? Tell me what happened,” she asked him again, making Zayn take in a long breath before answering.

“He was almost dead, barely holding onto life when .. Waters and his team found him. He was diagnosed with several doses of some drug, they had drugged him until he overdosed and .. that, probably, induced him into a coma,” he finished, closing his eyes, as his mind shuddered at the memory.

The sight he had seen when he and the boys were at the hospital, waiting for Alan Waters and his team to arrive. Seeing Louis’ almost dead body, lying in the stretcher as they led him into the Intensive Care Unit. His lips slightly parted while eyes dully open, he remembered the glassy look in them. His skin had somehow managed to turn much paler than he was, giving him a ghostly look. Blood smeared across his nose and lips, it seemed fresh unlike the trail of dried blood that seemed to have ran down his neck from his head.

Though Zayn had seen him for a few seconds, it was enough for him to understand the criticality of Louis’ condition. According to Paul, it was about fifteen minutes after they found Louis that the doctors finally confirmed a heartbeat from him, implying he was on the verge of death, still very slowly trying to hold onto his heartbeat. The doctor had told them how risky a detoxification was and all of them were nothing but thankful when Louis was still alive after the process, though having been pulled into a coma.

His wounds were severe, it was evident. Three of the fingers on his left hand fractured while another was severely damaged. He had seemed to have had lost a fair amount of blood from the wound on his head along with a bullet-wound in his leg. He had broken a nose, gruesome lacerations from the ropes hidden under the bandages on his wrists and ankles.

He couldn’t believe all of this had happened despite Modest assuring them that they had a plan. A plan to get him out safely. But everything now only made him wonder if they were too late in acting upon it. And the only thing they could do now was pray that Louis would be fine and hopefully, recover soon.

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

“What’s going on?” Liam asked upon seeing the hurried commotion around the headquarters of Modest.

He turned towards Paul with a confused expression only to receive a worried one from the older man.

“This place doesn’t belong to Modest anymore,” he replied, unbuckling his seatbelt before opening the door to his side. “Do _not_ step out of the car. I won’t take long.”

Liam nodded in response, watching him get down and close the door. With a sense of fear and an unsettling feeling in his chest, Liam tried shifting his focus to his hands. With Louis’ condition still remaining uncertain and all of Modest’s deals gone, he really couldn’t take in just how soon everything had gone downhill.

It still felt like just yesterday he had seen Louis smiling brightly, being the goofy person he was; just yesterday all five of them singing on the stage together; just yesterday everything in his life was perfect. And only he knew how he had to cope up with everything in the past two weeks. And now, he wished more than anything, for things to be normal again; to be the way they used to be.

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

“Can he hear us?” Lottie asked, curiously, her innocent eyes trailing over her brother’s unresponsive form.

Jay only hummed in response, not moving her eyes from Louis’ face at all; from his beautiful face that seemed nothing but exhausted and almost lifeless to her now.

“Then why isn’t he saying anything?” She asked again, making Jay suck in a breath as she turned to look at the little girl; Lottie was older then her siblings to be in here with her mother but still very young to understand the situation. Jay, briefly, moved her gaze to Harry sitting at the other end of the room before giving a wry smile to her daughter.

“He needs to sleep,” she answered, running her fingers through the girl’s soft hair.

“But he’s been sleeping for too long,” Lottie whined, making Jay try to hold back the building tears in her eyes.

“Let’s go get something for you to eat. He’ll wake up soon,” Jay said, getting up from her seat before taking Lottie out of the room.

Harry didn’t know what to do anymore; he had been sitting in here since morning, losing his mind at the awful situation, a situation without Louis’ sassy comments or his hearty laughs. He hadn’t been able to get himself anywhere close to Louis’ hospital bed, knowing very well that he wasn’t ready to see his friend that way. But even from where he sat, he knew the criticality of Louis’ state. Coma wasn’t a small thing; it was huge, and very well life-threatening. And given Louis’ injuries, he only hoped he wouldn’t succumb to them.

Gathering himself, Harry reluctantly got up from the couch, slowly making his way to where Louis lay. He felt suffocated only by looking at his form; his frail form. Something he never would’ve imagined to see Louis in.

Carefully, Harry placed his hand on Louis’ shoulder, feeling the relatively cold skin. It was the first time in over two weeks that Harry had seen Louis properly and it was quite overwhelming to realize Louis was alive; but terrifying to know that it wasn’t certain for now. Harry wondered if Louis could hear him; like Lottie had asked, if he could feel his presence, if he could feel all the pain that was probably running through his body.

“Wake up, Louis,” Harry said, his voice low and evidently sad. “Please,” he added in a mere whisper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! So, I've finally able to get some time out of my busy college life and the ever-terrible writer's block. So, I just hope you guys won't be mad at me cos, let's be honest, this chapter kinda sucked and I guess this quite wasn't what you guys had expected so I really apologise. And I'll try to make the next one better!


	23. TWENTY

“Are you sure you want to take matters to the court, Mr. Griffiths?” Waters asked, his eyes cautiously trying to decipher Richard’s.

Richard nodded, absent-mindedly, eyes still not moving from his fingers as he fiddled with them. “Of course, I want to,” he mumbled, finally looking up. “I cannot let Modest into the hands of a maniac. Neither can I not have justice for what was done to Tomlinson.”

Humming in agreement, Alan turned to Paul, his eyes meeting the worn-out and sad ones of the security head. He knew it was a huge loss, not only for Modest, but everyone even remotely associated with it.

“And what’s the status?” He asked, making Paul shake his head slightly, taking in a deep breath before he chose to reply. “The news isn’t out yet and I think we’d like to keep it that way until Louis’ state is certain,” the older man, his voice seemingly showing his disappointment. Disappointment at failing one of the people he should have been able to protect all along.

“No progress yet?” Waters asked, not having heard anything about the victim since the failed rescue mission.

“None.” Paul moved his eyes to the floor before turning to Richard. “Filing a case is going to fuel rumors. Rumors about Louis’ death, about Modest’s deals, about every fucking thing.”

“I don’t care,” Richard replied.

“I don’t care as long as Modest and its allies aren’t under Ferguson’s control and Louis is safely back on the road to recovery.”

“Do you really think he’s going to feel safe once Ferguson is behind the bars? Do you think he’s going to go back to being normal once he’s out of his sleep? Do you think taking matters to the court is enough justice for what he’d been through?” Paul retorted, his tone raising with each sentence. “Because if you do, then you’re wrong as hell! The kid’s scarred for life. And filing a case is like throwing him into a locked room filled with jittering remarks and questions to his way! A drug overdose could change mental stability, Richard. He could probably never even open up again! And all of this is the only reason why I wish he wouldn’t wake up! Because I know it’s not going to be so easy for him. He will be the one who’d have to face the world everyday, every scar reminding him of what he went through. And all of this, just because you and your stupid management couldn’t tell him about a record deal you rewarded him with secretly!”

“Telling him about the contract wouldn’t have changed much, Pa—“

“It could’ve changed something.” Paul remarked, for the first time, feeling a sting of tears in his eyes.

“Well, I wasn’t the one sworn to protect him, was I?” Richard muttered, his words making Paul feel guilty again. “It was your duty.”

Paul clenched his jaw, his mind all ready with a quick remark but Waters intervened.

“Blaming each other isn’t going to change a thing,” he said, trying to talk some sense into the two broken and hot heads. “If we want to report a case without fuelling the public about Tomlinson’s condition, then we’ve got to gather as much evidence as we can, against Ferguson. And we’ll have to be smart.”

“Why can’t we use the call recordings?” Paul asked.

“That way, public and media will know for sure that Tomlinson had been abducted and, so, there might be something wrong with him.” Waters answered.

“We could tell everyone he’s fine, just minor injuries. Nothing serious.”

“You can’t fool the media so easily, Paul. Neither the public.” Paul frowned, his mind hovering over ways. “Moreover, the only evidences we have of Louis’ kidnapping are the recordings and in almost every recording, Louis was hurt. Severely. We need to find a way to convince the court that Louis had been forced to sign the papers.”

 

 

 

\-----------------------------------------------

 

 

 

“Louis?”

_Louis’ heart raced hearing that voice again. It was a voice so familiar to him, he knew. But he wasn’t able to get his mind to recognize it. He did, but forgot, almost as if the name was right there, hovering around his brain but he couldn’t catch it. But that voice made him feel good. It gave him a comforting pleasure._

“Can you hear me?” _The voice said._ “I know you can hear me.”

_Louis tried to open his eyes but when he looked around, it all seemed dark. His heart sped more at the thought. Was he scared of the dark? Had he always been scared of it? He wanted to look around. He wanted to see the person talking to him. However, the voice seemed distant but loud at the same time. As though, he was seated in an empty theatre and the voice blasted through the speakers of the room. But, unfortunately, for him, he still couldn’t get himself to even squint and maybe be able to see something._

“I miss you. Everyone does.”

_He tried to move his hand to his face in an almost desperate attempt but, again, failed. He wasn’t in control of his movements anymore. Hell, he even felt like he was floating. Away from any kind of physical contact with anything._

“You remember the day we first met?” _The voice continued speaking._ “I saw you and I thought you were an idiot. I never told you this because then you’d go ahead and find a thousand different ways to somehow prove that I am idiot.” _The person chuckled, it almost felt like a sad one._

Can’t the person notice he was struggling with himself? _Louis wondered. Yet, the voice went on. And that annoyed Louis._

“I thought I’d never have you back.” _The voice cracked into a whisper in the very next sentence._ “But I’m so glad I was wrong. I love you, Louis. I love you so much.”

_Seconds passed and Louis, finally felt tired of getting himself to move and gave up. His mind and body feeling at peace after what seemed like an agonizing and tiresome struggle, his heartbeat slowing down, he could almost feel it. It felt peaceful. Serene. And he wanted things to be that way._

_But his blurred thoughts were interrupted by sudden and sharp sound of beeps at regular intervals. The sound was annoying and hurt Louis’ already pounding head._

“Oh, shit.” _He heard a whisper before the voice yelling, calling out for someone._

“What is happening?” _The voice asked in a hurry._

“It’s going to be fine.” _A new voice replied._

_The beeps didn’t stop. He wanted it to end, to relish the calm again. But, with each passing moment, the beeps became more and more frequent. Louis wanted to shut his ears, but he couldn’t. Amidst the blaring sound, he noticed the voice had become rushed, almost frantic. Louis wondered why. What was happening? But first, he wanted the beeping to stop, so he decided to call out or maybe yell for someone to stop it. Maybe, the voices would hear him and the person might stop it._

_But he couldn’t get himself to. He found something sticky holding his lips together, preventing him from speaking or even parting his lips. And that was when terror struck him. Within moments, he regained his vision. And he was back in that damned warehouse, the feeling of tight ropes cutting into his skin returning along with the cloth that was still making his throat dry. Louis’ already conflicted mind tried to cope up while tears threatened his eyes. He understood why he couldn’t move or talk. Because he was still here. And he also knew he wouldn’t be getting out anytime soon._

_He had already lost track of time and now, all hope of rescue. For a few minutes, Louis fought against the restraints, exhausting himself of all the strength left in him. The beeping sound still continued but it felt distant. He closed his eyes, a couple of tears spilling but he didn’t end his struggles. He wanted and needed to get out of here. He knew he couldn’t stay here for long, he’d lose his mind. He knew Modest wouldn’t do anything and he was all on his own._

“Keep talking to him!” _He heard a voice yell, causing him to whimper at the raised tone. It was different from the previous voice, but more clearer. As if the person was right beside him. But Louis tried not to pay attention. Right now, he only had to get out of here. But then he heard it again. The previous voice. And his heart skipped a beat realizing how clear and close it sounded._

_Stopping his struggles, Louis looked up, finding her at the end of the warehouse. Sitting at the end of the large room, her knees pressed against her chest, Eleanor seemed to be crying with her head buried in her lap while continuously repeating his name. Louis tried to call out to her but all that came out was a pitiful moan, one that could barely be audible._

“He’s responding to the voice. Keep talking to him!” _He heard the second voice again as the beeping became louder and faster._

_Tugging with all his strength at the ropes binding him, Louis let out a heart-wrenching cry of anguish and pain, trying to catch her attention. And he had succeeded. Eleanor looked up, her red-rimmed eyes looking directly at his. And Louis found himself crying again._

_He shifted ahead, trying to reach her but the ropes held him back. He could feel himself losing steady breath at the way the ropes dug into his chest. But he didn’t care. Because at that moment, he wanted her. He_ needed _her. He needed anything that could make him feel like home because he had been away for so long._

“Louis?” _She called again, making him close his eyes in despair. In pain, that he couldn’t even respond to her calls. He tried, nevertheless, fighting like he had never before. Desperately, trying to free himself but all his attempts were futile._ “Louis, can you hear me?” _He nodded, still pulling and twisting in his bonds_. “Listen to me.”

“I am listening,” _he wanted to say. Maybe, even run over to her and let himself cry into her sleeves but, for him, it wasn’t an option._

_Tears of agony streamed down his cheeks while he thrashed wildly against the pole, not caring about the skin painfully tearing under the ropes._

“Wake up, Lou. You need to wake up.”

“I am awake,” _he tried to say but couldn’t find his voice only able to emit a low, muffled grunt._

“Sh, just calm down and relax.” _She said again, making him frown._ What was she talking about? How was he supposed to get to her if he’d relax? _It didn’t make any sense to him. And, this scared him if he was hallucinating all of it again. Just like the last time._ No, he isn’t, _he told himself._

_He wouldn’t repeat the mistake of just cowering away and giving into his fears like he had done before. This time, he was determined to reach her. To, at least, try and communicate with her. Because unlike the last time, it felt real. Her voice felt so real and close, that couldn’t pass it away as a hallucination._

_Breathing heavily out of exhaustion, he still squirmed about in the ropes but none of them seemed to come loose. Louis stopped for a minute, leaning his head against the cold metal behind him while he cried. Cried, because he could do nothing to get to her, to the woman he loved._

“Wake up, Louis. Focus on getting out of there.” _He heard her say again_. “I know you can do it. Please.”

_Louis only cried more at her voice. Whatever she was trying to tell was beyond him but it hurt to just hear her desperate voice. Suffocating from his own cries, Louis coughed into the cloth, his dry throat making it painful._

“Please, Louis.” _He heard her add again and, this time, he couldn’t control himself more._

_Hanging his head low in defeat and exhaustion, Louis cried his heart out, his voice seeming muffled against the gag. Giving up, he let himself sink against the ropes, letting them hold his limp form upright to the pole. He found it difficult to control his choked cries while finding it hard to breathe. The cloth in his mouth didn’t help at all as he forced to breathe only from his nose that was blocked due to crying so much._

_Louis tried opening his mouth, breathing in but it didn’t work and he almost gasped, coughing. Suddenly, he felt heavily suffocated, his breathing seeming forced and unsteady while he thrashed against the ropes again, trying to free himself to aid to his discomfort. But nothing worked._

_Louis’ eyes widened as he practically felt himself running out of breath, tears involuntarily slipping from his eyes. Coughing some more, he gasped desperately, shaking his head in a futile attempt to get rid of the cloth tied around his mouth. Adding to his discomfort, he heard panicked voices yell around him and the beeping grew louder by each passing second._

_After almost a few seconds, Louis’ eyes felt heavy and he felt himself slipping out of consciousness due to lack of air. And, this time, he gave up. Not even trying to breathe as he let the darkness slowly pull him until he hoped he wouldn’t feel any kind of pain. His body went completely slack against the bonds, the room devoid of any more voices except the beep that now blared through the silent air in a continuous sound, drowning out the sound of someone’s distant cries._

_Almost a minute seemed to pass before Louis felt a sudden pain in his chest, like a jolt of electric shock, as if someone had hit him with a baseball with full force. He let out a loud but muffled cry but it had somehow, pulled him out of unconsciousness._

_All of a sudden, he was free of the ropes but back to the dark room he had previously been in, floating once again. Confused, Louis tried to move or speak again but realised he still couldn’t do either, making him unable to tend to the pain in his chest. He didn’t even try anything at all after that, only letting himself float again while he focused on stabilizing his ragged breathing._

_Could Eleanor still hear him? He wondered. Why had she stopped talking? Why isn’t he tied up anymore? Where did the warehouse go? He had so many question but chose to let himself drift off to sleep again, hoping he’d wake up and realize it was only a dream._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys! So, that was a longer chapter, I hope.
> 
> For those of you who found the part in italics a bit confusing, let me explain:
> 
> It's a dream Louis has while in his coma. The dark room is where he feels stuck in because he is in a coma and cannot move and speak because he is in kind of a sleep, his brain is the only thing functioning and the ventilator is aiding his breathing and the tube had to be taped around his mouth in order to get air and nutrition. 
> 
> Now, when he hears Eleanor in his sleep, she is actually talking to him in real life (like sitting by his bedside and trying to get him to respond). He hears it in his sleep and when he feels trapped, he gives up (this symbolises him giving up on fighting for his life, so that's why his heart rate drops and he heard the heart machine start beeping). 
> 
> He hates the sound and tries to respond but feels unable to move or speak, so he thinks he is still a hostage, being bound and gagged (this subtly implies PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). This causes him to dream of still being stuck in the warehouse while he sees and hears Eleanor because she is calling out to him from the outside (I read in an article that people in a coma have dreams that are intermixed with reality, so yeah, that's that). 
> 
> He tries to fight against his bonds and, therefore, he fights (responds) in reality. So, Eleanor continues to talk to him in hopes of him waking up, but it only triggers his emotions, making him exhaust himself. And when he thinks he can't get himself free, he gives up, i.e., gives up on fighting for his life so he hears the machine again and starts suffocating because he had tried to rest (shut himself). The continuous beep means his heart has stopped beating acc. to the heart machine, so he loses consciousness.
> 
> He feels a pain in his chest, all of a sudden, because of the defibrillation (hope i got the spelling right) process or the 'shock revival' and he is revived but still in the coma.
> 
> So, I hope that made sense. And now if you go back and read the part again, you might understand it better.
> 
> Woof, I've been reading too many articles on psychology and subconsciousness these days, I gotta stop or I'm gonna confuse my readers (XD)
> 
> Anyway, hope this chapter was good.
> 
> I'm sorry if the dialogues aren't as intriguing cos I had some terrible writer's block but it's almost been a year since I first drafted out this story and I really want to end it for two reasons. First, is of course, so many of you have been dying for updates and plot holes to get solved. Second, I need to focus on more stories cos I already have two more drafts in my head and want to get, at least, one of them out soon! Yes, so expect another action story soon!!
> 
> ILYSM!
> 
> <3

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and leave kudos if you like it!


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